l     \ 


I 


LIFE  IN 
CHR-IST 


EDGAR  YOUNG  MULLINS 


iiiii 


i 


tihxavy  of  Che  Cheolocjfcal  Seminary 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Sst>-te   of    the 
Rev,   John  B,   V/iedinger 

BX  6333  .M8  L5 

Mullins,  Edgar  Young,  1860- 

1928. 
The  life  in  Christ 


■a  d 


LIFE 


THE 

IN   CHRI 


EDGAR  YOUNG  MULLINS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

President  of  the   Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Author  oj 

"Why  is  Ckristianiiy  True";  "Freedom  and  Authority  in  Religion" ; 
"  The  Axioms  o/ Religion'' ;  "  Baptist  Beliefs"  ;    "Com- 
mentary on  Ephesians  and  CoUssians,"  etc.,  etc. 


New  York 


Chicago 


Toronto 


Fleming    H.    Revell   Company 


London 


AND 


Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     100    Princes     Street 


PREFACE 

THE  sermons  contained  in  this  volume  have  been 
preached  upon  many  and  varied  occasions. 
Many  of  them  have  been  put  into  manuscript 
form  from  brief  or  copious  notes  made  when  the  ser- 
mons were  first  preached.  This  will  explain  in  part  the 
varying  length  of  the  sermons.  A  few  of  them  are 
reproduced  from  the  manuscript  as  prepared  in  the 
first  instance.  If  the  reader  should  find  an  occasional 
repetition  of  a  thought  or  illustration  it  will  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  sermons  were  preached  upon  many 
occasions  and  at  various  places.  There  are  some  evi- 
dences of  an  increasing  demand  for  sermons  in  printed 
form.  These  are  sent  forth  as  a  small  contribution  to 
the  sermonic  literature  of  the  day,  with  the  prayer  that 
God  will  use  them  for  the  advancement  of  truth  and 
righteousness  among  men. 


3 


CHAPTER 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 
XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Lordship  of  Christ 7 

Abundant  Life 20 

The  Resurrection  Life  op  the  Be- 
liever       29 

Christianity  and  the  Law  of  Service  37 

No  Man  Liveth  to  Himself 46 

An  Ancient  Recipe  for  a  Happy  Life  58 

The  Fatherhood  of  God 67 

Freedom,  True  and  False 78 

The     Supreme    Quality    in    Human 
Actions 89 

sonship  through  sufferings 98 

Christ's  Challenge  to  Manhood.  .  .    iii 

Character    Adorning    Calling:     As 

Seen  in  the  Life  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee  126 

All  Things  Work  Together 136 

The   Revival   of   Morality   in  Our 

Public  Life  and  its  Meaning...   144 

Mob  Violence  as  a  Symptom 152 

Christianity  as  Power 158 

Dedication  Sermon 164 

The    Redemptive   Mission   of   Jesus 
Christ 175 

He  Came  to  Himself 194 

Manhood  and  Childhood  Religions.   205 
The  Testimony  of  Christian  Expe- 
rience     215 

The  Glory  of  Jesus  Christ 226 

5 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST 

Acts  2 :  36 — "Let  all  the  House  of  Israel  therefore 
know  assuredly,  that  God  hath  made  him  both  Lord 
and  Christ,  this  Jesus  whom  ye  crucified." 

THE  experience  of  the  disciples  after  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  resulted  in  a  very  remarkable 
transformation.  As  we  look  upon  them  and 
listen  to  their  words  as  recorded  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, we  seem  to  be  witnessing  a  work  of  creation. 
Something  new  in  human  history  is  being  called  into 
being,  something  new  in  individual  experience,  and 
something  new  in  the  social  order  arising  out  of  it. 
Two  things  seem  to  move  along  in  parallel  lines  in 
this  new  creation.  First,  the  lordship  of  Jesus  becomes 
more  and  more  absolute,  and  parallel  with  this  the 
triumphant  might  of  the  Christian  church  appears 
in  growing  splendour.  The  terms  and  descriptions 
which  they  now  apply  to  Jesus  show  the  former,  while 
the  conquest  of  disciples  over  environment  shows  the 
latter.  They  had  during  His  earthly  life  called  Jesus 
Messiah  and  Master  and  Lord.  But  these  were  con- 
ventional terms  in  current  use  which  were  without 
the  fulness  of  meaning  they  acquired  later.  But  now 
these  men  begin,  in  a  new  and  original  way,  to  define, 
or  rather  describe  the  lordship  of  Jesus.  In  the  pente- 
costal  powers  of  miracles  and  tongues  and  moral 
energy  which  fall  like  a  shower  of  diamonds  on  the 

7 


8  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

early  church,  Peter  sees  the  gift  of  Christ,  the  risen 
and  ascended  Lord.  When  men  turn  from  their 
sins  in  vast  numbers,  it  is  because  God  had  exalted 
Him  to  give  repentance  and  remission  of  sins;  and 
when  the  church  comes  into  existence  it  is  because 
Christ  gave  some  to  be  apostles  and  some  prophets  and 
some  teachers,  on  through  the  entire  ministry  and  or- 
ganization of  the  church.  John  on  Patmos  beholds 
Him  in  relation  to  the  churches,  and  presents  Him  as 
walking  among  them  with  eyes  like  fire  and  face  like 
the  sun  and  feet  like  burnished  brass.  He  sees  Him 
in  relation  to  earthly  rulers,  and  He  is  the  prince  of 
the  kings  of  the  earth;  and  in  relation  to  human  his- 
tory, and  He  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning 
and  the  end.  Paul  also  sees  Him  in  His  great  relations 
to  the  Universe,  and  He  becomes  the  centre  in  which 
God  sums  up  or  brings  to  a  head  all  things,  or  else  He 
is  the  golden  vessel  capacious  enough  to  contain  the 
fulness  of  the  divine.  For  in  Him  dwelt  all  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Godhead  bodily.  Thus  did  they  fill  out 
the  circle  of  meaning  of  the  earthly  names  of  Christ. 
Thus  did  his  Lordship  orb  itself  into  the  one  command- 
ing fact  of  life  and  history.  Thus  did  it  become  the 
centre  which  was  strong  enough  in  moral  and  spiritual 
gravitation  to  draw  to  itself  and  sustain  the  whole 
moral  universe  and  impart  to  it  order  and  system. 

Such  was  one  aspect  of  the  new  creation  which  took 
place  after  the  Resurrection.  The  other  aspect  was 
that  which  answered  to  this,  viz.,  the  triumphant  might 
of  disciples  themselves.  The  impression  this  makes 
upon  us  is  that  somehow  these  early  believers  had  been 
seized  by  an  irresistible  power.  One  writer  s.ays  that 
they  were  unconscious  of  the  purpose  working  in  them. 
All  they  knew  was  that  an  energy  was  at  work,  and 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST  9 

these  were  events  which  manifested  that  energy.    But 
there  was  more  than  this  in  the  events.     It  was  not 
only  a  question  of  cause  and  manifestation;  it  was  also 
an  instance  of  means  and  end.     Men  are  the  instru- 
ments of  a  new  power  which  seizes  them  and  wields 
them  mightily.     They  do  not  at  first  fully  grasp  the 
meaning  but  it  slowly  comes  to  them.     It  conquers 
Jerusalem    which    crucified    Jesus,    through    its    tre- 
mendous moral  energy.     It  seizes  a  great  mind  capa- 
cious enough  for  a  universal  gospel  in  the  person  of 
Saul,  the  persecutor,  and  through  him  pours  out  upon 
the  world  a  succession  of  glorious  emancipating  truths. 
This   power   sweeps   around   the   Mediterranean   and 
enters  Rome,  and  finally  it  conquers  Constantine,  and 
the  fiery  cross  which  he  saw  in  the  heavens  becomes  the 
guiding  principle  of  human  history.    In  short,  if  human 
history  be  likened  to  a  game  of  chess,  for  the  first 
time,  the  men  are  so  placed  that  we  begin  to  discern 
the  meaning  of  the  game.     If  it  be  likened  to  the 
growth  of  an  organism,  we  now  see  first  the  frame- 
work of  bones  emerging  in  the  protoplasmic  nucleus. 
If  we  liken  history  to  the  evolution  of  a  solar  system, 
we  now  see  the  central  nucleus  of  the  nebula  throwing 
off  masses  which  are  to  become  planets  and  satellites. 

Now  the  lordship  of  Jesus,  coupled  with  this  tri- 
umphant power  of  His  Church,  is  the  peculiar  and 
distinctive  truth  of  the  early  Christian  history,  and  we 
cannot  understand  the  lordship  apart  from  the  con- 
quering church  nor  the  conquering  church  apart  from 
the  lordship.  I  propose  in  this  sermon  to  define  a 
little  more  fully  what  the  sources  of  Christ's  lordship 
are  and  what  the  secret  of  the  church's  power,  or  more 
briefly  what  is  the  relationship  between  the  lordship  of 
Christ  and  the  conquest  of  the  world  by  the  church. 


10  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

I.  We  observe  first  the  ground  of  Christ's  lordship. 
We  note  then  that  He  is  Lord  through  divine  appoint- 
ment. "God  hath  made  him  both  Lord  and  Christ, 
this  Jesus  whom  ye  crucified."  Now  this  impUes  a 
fitness  which  grows  out  of  the  nature  of  things.  God's 
appointments  are  never  arbitrary.  He  is  Lord,  then, 
not  merely  in  name  but  in  reality.  If  His  function  is 
that  of  Lord,  His  nature  is  a  lordly  one.  If  He  has  for 
us  the  value  of  God,  His  nature  agrees  with  that  value. 
You  cannot  have  the  effect  and  repudiate  the  cause. 
Alice  in  Wonderland  saw  the  grin  on  the  cat's  face 
first  and  then  saw  the  cat  gradually  fade  away,  leaving 
only  the  grin.  This  was  in  Wonderland,  however,  not 
in  real  life.  If  Christ  works  in  a  man  repentance  and 
iaith  and  a  regenerated  life,  if  He  performs  the  office 
of  God  for  men,  while  remaining  simply  man,  when 
and  where  and  how  did  He  wrest  from  God  His  func- 
tions and  seize  the  reins  of  history?  We  can  only 
tell  what  things  are  by  what  they  do.  It  is  impossible 
then  to  assert  that  Christ  acts  on  history  as  God,  but 
is  destitute  of  the  divine,  as  many  moderns  assert. 
You  cannot  separate  function  and  nature.  You  do 
not  infer,  because  gravitation  makes  water  flow  down 
hill  that  the  nature  of  gravitation  tends  really  to  make 
water  flow  up  hill. 

Christ  exercises  lordship  because  He  is  Lord.  He 
is  Lord  by  God's  appointment  because  He  is  essentially 
possessed  of  a  lordly  nature.  Now,  that  fitness  for 
lordship  has  shown  itself  in  several  other  ways.  For 
one  thing,  it  is  seen  in  Christ's  successful  affirmation 
of  spiritual  values  and  realities  over  against  a  material- 
istic age.  The  physical  universe  dwarfs  man.  The 
Psalmist  felt  that,  and  the  modern  world  is  incom- 
parably vaster  than  that  of  the  Psalmist.    The  earth  is 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST         11 

a  Bethlehem  of  the  Universe,  just  a  tiny  village,  and 
man  its  inhabitant.  We  must  admit  that,  looked  at 
externally,  Shakespeare  is  insignificant  compared  with 
Orion.  The  Pleiades  outshine  the  church  in  external 
splendour.  The  Milky  Way  makes  all  human  history 
look  like  a  tiny  path  which  ants  have  made  through 
a  jungle.  And  yet,  and  yet,  this  is  not  all.  Man  is 
not  dwarfed  by  the  Milky  Way.  He  refuses  to  be 
cowed  by  all  the  vastness  around,  and  he  steadfastly 
declines  to  be  blinded  by  the  dazzling  splendours  of  all 
the  systems. 

Now,  why  is  this?  There  is  but  one  answer.  It 
is  the  light  Christ  has  shed  upon  human  character 
and  human  value — the  worth  of  the  individual,  the 
value  of  the  soul.  Man  is  a  lost  sheep;  the  shepherd 
will  not  rest  until  he  finds  it.  Man  is  a  lost  coin  and 
God  is  impoverished  because  he  is  lost,  and  He  will, 
like  the  woman  in  the  parable,  sweep  every  nook  and 
cranny  of  the  universe  in  order  to  find  the  lost  coin. 
Man  is  lost  through  sin  and  the  Father  waits  for  his 
return  in  age-long  patience.  The  grave  cannot  con- 
quer man.  Personality  is  the  supreme  thing.  Man  is 
the  diamond  point  on  the  golden  pen  of  the  universe. 
Christ's  lordship  is  seen  in  His  power  to  exalt  personal- 
ity to  the  supreme  place  against  a  universe  even  vaster 
than  ours.  Only  Christ  does  this.  Modern  pantheism 
quenches  personality.  Unless  there  is  a  divine  person 
behind  all  things,  then  our  human  personality  is  no 
more  than  a  bubble  on  the  bosom  of  the  stream  of  time 
— an  iridescent  emptiness  which  gleams  a  moment  in 
the  sunlight  and  then  vanishes  forever. 

Again,  Christ's  Lordship  is  seen  in  His  steadily  in- 
creasing power  to  control  the  moral  progress  of  the 
race.    Men  are  asserting  that  the  ethics  of  Jesus  have 


12  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

been  outgrown,  that  some  of  His  teachings  are  anti- 
quated. There  is  but  one  way  to  deny  the  finahty  of 
Christ's  ethics,  and  that  is  by  repudiating  them  alto- 
gether. Nietzsche  frankly  does  this.  Morals  are  bad 
for  the  race,  he  says.  Now,  if  there  be  an  ethics  at  all, 
the  ethics  of  Jesus  alone  can  control.  For  all  ethical 
thought  gravitates  back  to  Him.  Men  superficially 
conclude  that  because  you  do  not  find  in  the  New 
Testament  express  commands  against  trusts  and  boy- 
cotts, and  particulars  for  all  our  modern  complex  life, 
its  ethics,  therefore,  are  outgrown.  But  the  New 
Testament  contains  what  is  far  better — the  vitalizing 
principles  for  the  ethics  of  all  ages.  The  sunlight  is 
as  ancient  as  the  universe  and  as  modern  as  the  foliage 
in  your  parks  and  the  blossoms  in  your  flower  gardens. 
If  you  were  to  break  a  sunbeam  into  a  thousand  frag- 
ments, you  would  not  find  a  single  heliotrope  or  honey- 
suckle. But  if  you  let  the  sunlight  play  on  the  planted 
seed,  you  get  both.  You  do  not  go  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment for  the  last  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  or  the 
last  Act  of  Congress,  but  in  many  acts  of  legislation 
and  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  you  get  the  out- 
ward expression  of  the  moral  teachings  of  Jesus.  ' 
Christ  is  lord  also  of  the  intellectual  progress  of 
the  race,  because  His  teaching  as  to  God  sums  up  all 
that  philosophy  has  surmised  and  more.  I  cannot  out- 
line even  the  great  thoughts  of  philosophy,  but  all  of 
them  are  seen  in  Christ's  teaching  as  to  God  the 
Father.  Christ  is  the  author  of  modern  discontent  in 
all  its  higher  forms  simply  because  He  has  given  the 
vision  of  the  eternal.  Western  civilization  has  been 
transformed  into  a  stairway.  Each  epoch  is  a  step 
upward.  Our  masterpieces  no  longer  satisfy.  We 
carve  out  our  masterpieces  with  mallet  and  chisel  from 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST         13 

the  marble  of  history,  and  contemplate  each  for  a  time, 
and  then  the  old  discontent  arises,  and  we  put  it  on 
one  side  and  begin  on  another.  Our  masterpieces  then 
become  the  landmarks  of  our  upward  progress,  Christ 
is  the  fleeing  goal  of  history. 

We  observe,  then,  that  the  Lordship  of  Jesus  is  based 
on  the  eternal  nature  of  things,  and  His  church  ac- 
quires power  as  it  appreciates  the  meaning  of  this. 

Jesus  also  controls  the  spiritual  progress  of  the  race. 
God  hath  made  Him  both  Lord  and  Christ,  this  Jesus 
whom  ye  crucified.  Please  observe  where  the  em- 
phasis falls:  "this  Jesus  whom  ye  crucified."  The 
apostle  does  not  say  God  hath  made  Him  both  Lord 
and  Christ,  this  Jesus  who  became  incarnate,  though 
this  was  true ;  nor  this  Jesus  who  preached  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  though  this  was  true;  nor  this  Jesus 
who  wrought  miracles,  although  this  was  an  undoubted 
fact;  nor  this  Jesus  who  was  raised  from  the  dead, 
though  that  is  implied.  He  says  rather  "this  Jesus  whom 
ye  crucified."  The  lordship  of  Jesus  is  based  not  pri- 
marily on  what  He  taught  or  merely  on  what  He  was. 
It  was  first  of  all  based  on  what  He  did.  Not  a  teach- 
ing, but  an  event  is  the  corner  stone  of  His  lordship. 

Now  His  cross  is  not  merely  a  moral  spectacle  to 
exhibit  God's  love  and  righteousness.  It  is  rather  a 
transaction  which  was  grounded  in  some  deep  neces- 
sity. Just  as  a  loving  father  might  thrust  his  hand 
in  the  fire  to  rescue  a  child  who  had  fallen  into  it, 
but  would  never  call  his  children  around  and  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  flames  without  cause  merely  to 
demonstrate  his  love,  so  Jesus  did  not  yield  Himself 
to  the  cross  merely  as  a  spectacle.  Hence  Christian 
experience  has  always  looked  to  His  sufferings  as  the 
centre  of  His  work  for  man. 


14  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

The  death  of  Christ,  then,  was  a  moral  transaction. 
As  His  cross  was  a  moral  and  spiritual  transaction 
with  God  and  not  merely  a  physical  death,  so  His 
primary  service  to  men  is  a  spiritual  transaction  in 
their  souls.  Men  do  not  reason  their  way  up  to  Christ 
and  then  bow  down  to  His  lordship.  They  always 
meet  Him  in  moral  struggles  of  some  kind  or  another. 
His  lordship  is  first  of  all  moral,  not  intellectual. 

Matthew  Arnold  says,  try  all  the  ways  of  being 
good,  and  you  will  fail,  but  try  the  way  of  Jesus  and 
you  will  succeed.  Jesus  has  always  met  men  in  their 
struggles,  and  His  lordship  is  based  on  the  inevitable- 
ness  and  finality  of  His  way  of  life.  Here  is  a  man 
desiring  to  cross  a  mountain  who  finds  a  number  of 
paths  leading  up  the  mountain  side.  He  tries  one  and 
it  curves  around  again  to  the  valley.  He  tries  another, 
and  it  ends  beneath  a  perpendicular  wall  of  rock.  He 
tries  a  third  and  it  carries  him  to  the  brow  of  a  preci- 
pice, a  fourth  and  it  leads  him  into  a  cavern.  Finally 
he  tries  another  which  leads  over  the  mountain.  The 
authority  of  the  one  path  over  the  others  is  that  it 
leads  over  the  mountain  and  the  others  do  not.  This 
is  precisely  the  function  of  Jesus  Christ  in  human 
life.  All  men  alike  need  this  final  authority.  We 
boast  of  our  freedom,  and  we  do  well ;  but  authority, 
lordship,  is  as  fundamental  a  need  as  is  freedom.  We 
see  it  in  Plato,  that  marvel  of  philosophical  acumen, 
who  after  having  explored  the  limits  of  human 
thought,  longed  for  a  God  or  a  God-inspired  man  to 
lift  the  veil  from  his  eyes  and  show  him  truth.  We 
see  it  in  Job  when,  tossed  by  doubt  and  fear,  he  longs 
for  a  daysman,  a  voice  to  speak  to  God  for  him  and 
to  speak  to  him  for  God.  We  see  it  in  the  men  of 
the  middle  ages,  who  prayed  and  hoped  that  their 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST         15 

dead  emperor,  Frederick  Barbarossa,  would  some  day 
awake  from  his  enchanted  sleep  in  the  cavern  high 
up  on  the  mountain  side  and  come  again  to  lead  them 
to  victory.  We  see  it  in  Huxley,  who  longed  for  some 
moral  power  which  might  enter  his  spirit  and  compel 
it  to  think  right  thoughts  and  do  right  things.  We 
see  it  again  in  Luther,  who  waged  such  a  war  against 
human  authorities.  Now  he  is  in  the  Wartburg  Castle, 
as  prisoner,  looking  out  at  night  upon  the  vast  ex- 
panse of  heaven  with  long  trailing  clouds  sailing  past, 
and  asking  what  supports  this  vast  frame  and  our 
human  lives.  Or  when  in  his  garden  at  nightfall  a 
little  bird  alights  on  the  branch  of  a  tree  for  the  night, 
and  Luther  sees  and  thinks  of  its  frail  body  outlined 
against  the  infinite  sky,  and  from  it  learns  a  lesson 
of  trust.  Or  at  another  time,  at  the  deathbed  of  his 
little  daughter  Margaret,  he  is  resigned  to  her  going, 
yet  longing,  oh!  so  deeply,  to  have  her  stay,  yet  fol- 
lowing the  little  traveller  out  into  the  dim  regions 
beyond  with  awe  and  wonder  and  humility,  and  finding 
in  it  all  occasion  for  trust.  So  in  all  the  deeper  forms 
of  human  experience.  In  our  temptations  we  want 
a  stronger  hand  than  our  own  which  can  tame  the 
lions  of  passion  in  our  breasts.  In  our  highest  in- 
tellectual flights,  baffled  and  disappointed,  we  long  for 
some  higher  power  to  rest  our  weary  wings  and  enable 
us  to  penetrate  the  great  beyond.  In  our  sorrows  and 
losses  we  need  a  voice  which  speaks  with  authority 
and  can  comfort  us.  With  this  thought  in  mind,  then, 
we  come  to  consider  the  authority  of  Christ  in  the 
light  of  human  need  and  man's  assertion  of  freedom. 
II.  We  observe  next  the  method  of  Christ's  lord- 
ship, or  how  He  exerts  His  lordship.  And  here  we 
have  a  threefold  paradox: 


16  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

1.  His  authoritative  revelations  of  truth  are  de- 
signed to  become  human  discoveries  of  truth.  The 
ascending  mind  of  men  is  to  meet  the  descending 
truth  of  revelation.  He'  did  not  impose  the  doctrine 
of  His  supernatural  person  upon  His  disciples  as  a 
dogma  to  be  subscribed  to.  His  method  was  to  let 
it  dawn  upon  them  until  they  discovered  Him,  as  it 
were.  He  wanted  them  to  have  the  joy  and  the  re- 
sultant growth  of  spiritual  discoverers.  "Whom  do 
men  say  that  I  am?"  He  said  little  of  the  doctrine 
of  His  vicarious  death  in  the  life  on  earth,  but  we 
do  find  the  doctrine  expounded  in  the  epistles.  He 
meant  for  the  disciples  to  discover  its  meaning.  We 
shall  only  gradually  discover  the  inner  meaning  of 
some  truths  of  His  revelation.  Meantime  we  accept 
them  and  go  on  exploring  them.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  will  in  time  prove  the  real  key  to  the  Universe 
and  to  all  philosophy.  The  ascending  mind  will  under- 
stand the  revelation. 

2.  The  second  paradox  of  Christ's  authority  is  that 
He  exerts  His  authority  by  making  us  free.  He  gives 
autonomy  to  all  His  slaves.  What  a  winged  word  was 
that  of  the  Reformation  era,  "the  right  of  private 
judgment."  When  Luther  started  with  this  watch- 
word, all  the  thrones  of  the  world  began  to  totter. 
Luther  smote  the  throne  of  priest  and  king  alike  when 
he  asserted  man's  right  to  think  for  himself  in  reli- 
gion. Man  said  he  was  bringing  on  chaos  and  ruin. 
And  so  with  this  new  watchword,  "the  right  of  private 
judgment,"  men  subjected  every  institution  to  a  new 
test.  At  length,  under  their  sense  of  freedom  and  in 
their  iconoclastic  mood,  after  shattering  all  the  sov- 
ereignties, they  came  back  to  Christ  and  exercised 
on  Him  their  "right  of  private  judgment."    They  lis- 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF  CHRIST         17 

tened  to  His  words,  and  what  did  they  say?  "Never 
man  spake  as  this  man."  They  looked  at  His  moral 
beauty,  and  they  said,  "He  is  the  Chief  among  ten 
thousand."  They  followed  His  majestic  form  upward 
until  they  saw  it  losing  itself  in  snowy  grandeur  in 
the  depths  of  divine  nature,  and  what  did  they  say? 
"He  was  the  effulgence  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the 
image  of  his  substance."  Thus  in  the  exercise  of 
their  right  of  private  judgment  men  gazed  on  Christ 
and  deep  down  in  their  inmost  souls  they  formed  a 
new  judgment.  Then  they  gathered  together  again 
all  the  shattered  fragments  of  the  destroyed  sov- 
ereignties of  earth  and  welded  and  fused  them 
together,  and  made  of  them  another  throne  greater 
than  any  the  world  ever  saw,  and  seated  Christ  upon 
it.  Then  they  plaited  and  v/ove  a  crown  made  up  of 
their  thanksgiving  and  praise,  their  adoration  and  wor- 
ship, their  loyalty  and  eternal  love,  and  they  put  the 
crown  on  His  brow.  That  is  what  the  right  of  private 
judgment  did  with  Christ. 

What  a  strange,  glorious  slavery  is  the  slavery  to 
Christ.  It  sent  men  leaping  and  singing  to  the  stake. 
He  put  His  iron  chain  on  Edward  Caswell,  and  he 
sang,  "Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  thee  with  sweetness 
fills  my  breast,  but  sweeter  far  thy  face  to  see,  and  in 
thy  presence  rest."  He  put  His  chain  on  Samuel  Sten- 
nett,  and  he  sang  "Majestic  sweetness  sits  enthroned 
upon  the  Saviour's  brow,  his  head  with  radiant  glories 
crowned,  his  lips  with  grace  o'erflow."  He  bound 
Richard  Watson  Gilder  with  His  shackles,  and  Gilder 
wrote,  "If  Jesus  is  a  man,  and  only  a  man,  I  say,  of 
all  Mankind  I  will  cleave  to  him,  and  cleave  to  him 
alway.  If  Jesus  Christ  is  God,  and  the  only  God,  I 
swear  I  will  follow  him  through  heaven  and  hell,  the 


18  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

earth,  the  sea  and  the  air."  Thousands  of  Christ's 
slaves  sit  together  in  congregations  all  over  the  world 
and  sing,  "All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name.  Let 
angels  prostrate  fall.  Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem, 
and  crown  him  Lord  of  all." 

3,  The  third  paradox  of  Christ's  authority  is  that, 
having  subjected  us  to  Himself,  He  makes  us  the 
medium  of  His  own  authority  to  the  world.  This  is 
the  marvel  of  it,  the  sense  of  subjection  leaves  us  and 
a  sense  of  authority  and  power  comes  over  us.  We 
are,  as  it  were,  assimilated  to  Him  in  His  authority. 
His  authority  flows  through  us. 

Now,  this  is  the  supreme  need  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  this  intensified  and  deepened  sense  of  Christ's 
authority  in  us.  The  pastor  needs  it  to  conquer  his 
environment  with  spiritual  forces.  The  pastor  who 
leaves  one  field  because  it  is  hard  and  goes  to  another 
because  it  is  easy  needs  to  go  back  and  study  the 
spiritual  alphabet.  There  are  no  easy  fields.  All  fields 
are  just  new  combinations  of  the  old  elements — the 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  What  the  pastor  needs 
is  a  new  sense  of  spiritual  authority  and  power. 

The  churches  need  this  sense  of  Christ's  lordship 
in  order  to  do  their  great  task.  We  need  it  for  our 
missionary  task.  A  little  boy  whose  mother  had  taught 
him  that  God  knows  all  things  and  that  He  loves  all, 
saw  in  a  missionary  book  a  picture  of  heathen  wor- 
shippers in  India  burning  a  human  victim  in  sacrifice. 
He  looked  up  and  asked,  "Mother,  does  God  see  this  ?" 
"Yes,"  was  the  reply.  "Does  He  care?"  "Yes,"  was 
the  reply.  "Why,  then,  does  He  not  stop  it?"  Ah, 
that  was  the  supreme  and  crucial  question,  and  the 
missionary  enterprise  is  the  only  answer  to  it.  God's 
love  Is  revealed  through  Christ,  and  the  love  of  Christ 


THE  LORDSHIP  OF   CHRIST         19 

reaches  mankind  only  as  we  embody  it.  He  has  no 
hands,  or  tongue,  or  feet  on  earth  save  ours. 

We  need  this  transferred  lordship  of  Jesus  for  our 
social  tasks.  The  whole  of  the  great  modern  problem 
can  be  solved  in  and  through  Him  alone.  The  King- 
dom of  God,  which  is  the  correlative  to  the  lordship 
of  Jesus,  means  justice  in  the  economic  world  and 
righteousness  in  political  life.  It  means  the  destruction 
of  those  piratical  forms  of  business  which  knows  no 
pity  and  gives  no  quarter.  It  means  the  end  of  the 
piteous  cries  of  overworked  and  pale-faced  children 
in  factories.  It  means  the  abolition  of  the  disease- 
breeding  tenement  and  the  death-infested  sweatshop. 
It  means  ultimately  the  end  of  war.  These  are  great 
tasks.  But  Chesterton  is  right  when  he  says,  "Jesus 
is  a  lion-tamer  and  has  been  a  lion-tamer  from  the 
beginning."  He  did  not  set  out  to  catch  sparrows  or 
subdue  rabbits.  He  Icves  the  great  undertaking,  and 
the  chief  difficulty  has  been  that  His  people  have  been 
content  to  think  in  terms  of  conventional  Christianity, 
comfortable  and  smug,  without  a  sense  of  conquest  or 
ambition  for  great  things.  As  Ruskin  puts  it,  "They 
have  been  content  with  the  religion  of  the  organ  and 
the  aisle,  the  twilight  revival  and  vesper  service,  gas 
lighted  and  gas-inspired  Christianity." 

And  this  brings  us  back  to  our  starting  point  with 
the  New  Testament  Church.  The  vividness  and 
reality  of  our  sense  of  the  lordship  of  Jesus  will 
determine  the  power  we  possess  to  transform  the 
world.  The  Kingdom  of  God  will  come  when  the 
lordship  of  Jesus  is  transferred  to  His  people  and 
they  become  lordly  in  moulding  and  guiding  human 
progress. 


II 

ABUNDANT  LIFE 

John  10 :  10 — "I  came  that  they  may  have  life  and 
that  they  may  have  it  abundantly." 

THESE  are  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ  to  His 
disciples.  He  is  the  source  of  life  to  man- 
kind. Through  Him  the  world  was  made. 
All  forms  of  life  are  His  gift.  In  Him  all  living 
things  consist,  and  Jesus  is  preeminently  life  to  be- 
lievers. 

First  of  all,  let  us  find  a  definition  of  life.  What 
is  life  in  the  spiritual  sense?  Jesus  declares,  "This  is 
life  eternal  that  they  might  know  thee,  the  only  true 
God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent." 

Perhaps  we  may  do  well  to  consider  the  scientific 
definition  of  life.  Science  defines  life  as  a  correspon- 
dence between  organism  and  environment.  There  is 
a  living  organism  and  around  it  is  nature.  There  is 
an  adjustment  between  the  two.  So  long  as  the  organ- 
ism maintains  this  correspondence  with  its  environ- 
ment, life  goes  on.  Death  comes  when  the  organism 
fails  or  the  environment  fails  or  when  the  correspon- 
dence between  organism  and  environment  is  broken. 
The  organ  may  be  perfect,  but  if  the  necessary  envi- 
ronment is  not  perfect,  the  organism  dies,  as  when  a 

20 


ABUNDANT  LIFE  21 

man  suffocates  when  he  is  deprived  of  air;  or,  again, 
the  environment  may  be  perfect  but  the  organism  is 
defective;  the  organism  may  be  perfect  and  the  envi- 
ronment may  be  perfect,  but  the  connection  between 
the  two  is  broken.  The  scientists  are  fond  of  pointing 
out  that  if  we  could  find  a  perfect  organism  and  a  per- 
fect environment  and  if  the  connection  between  the  two 
could  be  preserved  unbroken,  we  would  have  endless 
or  eternal  life. 

Now  the  doctrine  of  Christianity  is  that  Christ  gives 
eternal  life.  If  we  retain  the  definition  which  we 
have  set  forth,  this  would  mean  that  there  is  an  organ- 
ism which  does  not  lose  its  power  and  there  is  an 
environment  in  which  it  is  placed  which  does  not  fail 
and  that  there  is  a  vital  and  enduring  connection  be- 
tween the  organism  and  the  environment.  In  other 
words  we  may  say  that  the  soul  regenerated  by  the 
grace  of  God  is  the  spiritual  organism.  The  environ- 
ment of  the  regenerated  soul  is  God  Himself,  and 
faith  is  the  means  of  connection  between  the  soul  and 
its  environment.  Christ  mediates  to  us  eternal  life 
through  God.  He  establishes  the  connection  between 
the  soul  and  the  Eternal  One  and  through  His  grace 
that  connection  is  maintained  and  eternal  life  becomes 
a  fact  for  us. 

In  the  second  place,  we  may  consider  the  cost  of 
our  life  with  Christ.  The  life  comes  to  us  freely. 
As  Paul  expresses  it,  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but 
the  free  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ, 
our  Lord."  But  there  was  infinite  cost  to  Christ 
Himself,  and  we  do  not  find  the  true  measure  of  that 
cost  until  we  get  to  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  life  of 
Jesus  on  earth  we  imitate.  The  teachings  of  Christ 
minister  in  many  ways  to  our  life.    The  life  that  dwells 


22  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

in  the  heavenly  Christ  is  the  Hfe  which  He  poured  out 
on  the  world.  This  life  and  this  fulness  of  life  He 
achieved  as  our  Redeemer  through  His  atoning 
death.  The  earthly  Christ  becomes  glorified  when 
we  consider  Him  in  tl:e  light  of  the  heavenly  Christ. 
The  risen  and  glorified  Christ  passed  through  the 
gates  of  death  and  by  virtue  of  the  gift  of  His  own  life, 
the  emptying  of  Himself,  there  comes  to  Him  the 
supreme  endowment  of  life  for  mankind. 

It  is  this  fact  that  makes  the  Cross  so  impressive. 
Jesus  did  not  die  the  death  of  a  martyr  merely.  It 
was  this,  but  infinitely  more.  When  in  the  Garden 
He  lifted  the  cup  of  suffering  and  looked  into  its 
depths  and  recoiled  from  it  and  prayed  three  times 
that  it  might  pass  from  Him,  and  when  finally  He 
pressed  it  to  His  lips  and  drained  it  dry,  we  are  pro- 
foundly moved  to  the  convict' on  that  there  was  a  deep 
and  underlying  necessity  in  His  death  ;  and  again  when 
on  the  Cross  itself  the  cry  went  up  from  His  lips, 
"My  God !  My  God !  Why  hast  Thou  forsaken  me  ?" 
The  truth  is  borne  in  upon  us  that  Jesus  entered  the 
region  and  shadow  of  death  in  a  sense  of  which  we 
cannot  conceive.  Some  have  said  that  Jesus  had  little 
to  say  about  His  atonement  while  on  earth  and  that, 
therefore.  He  did  not  assign  it  a  place  of  great  im- 
portance. But  Jesus  came  not  to  talk  about  but  to 
make  the  atonement.  He  was  about  to  render  the 
greatest  possible  service  to  mankind  and,  as  is  fitting 
in  those  about  to  render  such  service,  there  was  a  be- 
coming reticence  in  His  words  about  it.  He  did  fore- 
tell His  death.  He  did  declare  that  it  was  supremely 
necessary.  He  did  declare  that  through  it  there  was 
to  come  remission  of  sins,  but  the  redeemed  have 
never  wearied  of  the  theme  and  in  the  writings  of 


ABUNDANT  LIFE  23 

the  Apostles  we  have  much  space  devoted  to  His  death 
and  its  meaning.  The  cost  of  our  hfe,  therefore,  to 
Christ,  the  hfe  giver,  was  more  than  any  words  of 
ours  can  express. 

Let  us  note,  in  the  third  place,  some  of  the  mani- 
festations of  the  abundant  life  which  we  have  in  Christ. 
I  name  several  ways.  For  one  thing,  this  life  mani- 
fests itself  in  us  by  uniting  us  vitally  with  Christ. 
One  of  Paul's  favourite  figures  is  that  of  the  human 
body  with  its  many  members,  of  which  Christ  is  the 
head.  In  one  notable  passage  the  Apostle  Paul  de- 
clares that  his  life  was  ruled  by  the  love  of  Christ. 
He  says,  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  me."  He 
makes  the  point  clear  by  saying,  "We  thus  judge  that 
if  one  die  for  all  therefore  all  died  and  we  which  live 
no  longer  live  unto  ourselves  but  unto  him  who  for 
our  sakes  died  and  rose  again."  I  think  the  Apostle 
has  in  mind  here  his  favourite  figure  of  Christ  the  head 
and  His  people  the  members  of  His  body.  There  is 
a  vital  union  between  the  two.  The  member  shares 
the  life  of  the  head  and  the  head  shares  the  life  of 
the  member.  The  blood  that  flows  through  the  head 
flows  through  the  hand.  There  is  an  indissoluble  union 
between  the  head  and  the  members.  I  think,  there- 
fore, when  the  Apostle  says  "The  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth me"  he  does  not  mean  "my  love  for  Christ," 
for  he  knew  that  his  love  for  Christ  was  too  feeble 
a  thing  apart  from  something  higher.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  do  not  believe  he  meant  to  say  "Christ's  love 
for  me,"  although  this  was  certainly  included  in  the 
higher  truth.  I  think  the  Apostle  rather  meant  thac 
because  of  the  vital  union  between  himself,  one  of 
the  members,  and  Christ,  the  head,  he  could  say  the 
divine  life  which  Christ  embodied,   which   dwelt  in 


24  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Christ,  dwells  in  me  and  constrains  me.  That  divine 
compassion  which  was  incarnated  in  the  Saviour  had 
become  a  part  of  Paul's  life.  Thus,  it  was  his  love 
to  Christ  combined  with  Christ's  love  for  him  in  that 
higher  principle  of  divine  love  which  Christ  embodied 
and  poured  into  his  own  life  as  an  Apostle  and  as  a 
believer. 

Again,  the  life  which  we  derive  from  Christ  mani- 
fests itself  by  growth  and  development.  In  one  place 
Paul  says  that  he  counts  all  things  to  be  loss  "that  I 
may  know  Christ  and  be  found  in  him,  not  having  a 
righteousness  of  mine  own  but  a  righteousness  which 
is  through  faith  in  the  Son  of  God."  Paul  uttered 
these  words  in  his  old  age,  after  he  had  written  some 
of  his  great  epistles.  He  never  wearied  of  gazing 
upon  the  Master.  He  was  never  satisfied  with  his 
knowledge.  Looking  upon  Christ  was  like  gazing 
upon  the  firmament.  There  were  always  new  beauties 
and  greater  depths.  The  eye  and  the  mind  could 
never  take  it  all  in.  This  is  the  chief  glory  of  Christ, 
His  fascination  for  believers.  We  never  fully  compass 
Him.  He  is  the  goal  which  ever  flees  from  us, 
although  He  dwells  forever  in  us.  We  grow  weary 
of  things  which  we  master.  When  we  have  mastered 
the  contents  of  a  book,  it  no  longer  interests  us.  We 
put  it  away  on  the  shelf.  When  a  man  is  working 
at  an  invention  and  completes  it,  he  turns  from  that 
to  something  else.  It  is  said  of  Edison  that  he  spent 
years  of  devotion  to  the  problem  of  producing  the 
electric  light  but  that  when  he  had  mastered  it  he 
would  walk  around  a  square  to  avoid  passing  one. 
I  do  not  know  whether  this  is  true  or  not,  but  in  any 
event,  it  is  true  to  human  nature.  We  turn  away 
from  the  thing  that  we  have  mastered,  but  we  can 


ABUNDANT  LIFE  25 

never  master  Christ.  In  Him  are  eternal  depths.  The 
danger  of  the  Christian  is  arrested  development.  There 
are  stunted  Christians  who  should  be  growing;  little 
Christians  who  should  be  great  Christians ;  feeble  be- 
lievers who  ought  to  be  rugged  and  strong.  There  is 
but  one  way  to  achieve  that  ideal  life,  and  that  is  by- 
clinging  closely  to  the  living  Christ. 

Again,  our  life  in  Christ  manifests  itself  by  the  un- 
folding of  the  parts  of  our  nature.  No  matter  how 
brilliant  our  intellect,  Christ  will  add  lustre  to  it.  No 
matter  what  our  endowment  of  affection  or  genius  in 
any  form,  Christ  will  bring  forth  in  us  ten-fold  more 
of  fruitage  than  we  can  ever  know  without  Him. 
There  are  many  lives  which  are  failing  because  they 
have  never  grasped  their  own  possibilities  in  and 
through  Jesus  Christ.  If  I  were  to  hold  in  my  hand 
a  flower  and  I  should  ask  a  bee  its  view  of  the 
flower,  perhaps  it  would  answer  by  alighting  on  it 
and  sucking  sweetness  from  it.  The  bee's  answer  is 
"Life  is  a  storehouse  of  sweet  things."  If  I  should 
ask  a  little  child  its  opinion  of  the  flower,  it  would 
probably  say,  "The  flower  is  a  plaything."  If  I 
should  ask  a  scientific  man,  perhaps  he  would  tear  the 
flower  into  bits,  analyze  it  into  parts  and  give  me  a 
very  learned  and  formal  opinion  as  to  the  flower. 
If  I  should  ask  a  poet,  he  might  compose  a  beauti- 
ful verse  about  it  and  say  the  flower  is  the  source 
of  poetic  inspiration.  But  if  I  should  ask  a  devout 
Christian  who  knows  the  meaning  of  life  in  Jesus 
Christ,  he  would  tell  me  that  the  flower  is  God's  gift 
and  that  we  do  not  reach  its  true  meaning  until  we 
find  in  it  a  token  of  God's  love.  There  are  those 
who  take  the  bee  view  of  life.  They  use  it  for  en- 
joyment.    For  them  life   is   simply  a   storehouse  of 


26  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

sweet  things.  They  become  sensuaHsts,  devotees  of 
pleasure.  There  are  others  who  take  the  child's  view. 
To  them  life  is  a  plaything  with  no  great  meaning, 
and  so  we  pass  on  up  through  the  various  concep- 
tions of  life  to  the  highest.  Life  is  God's  gift.  It 
is  the  expression  of  His  love.  In  it  our  whole  nature 
realizes  itself. 

Little  do  men  and  women  dream  of  the  unsuspected 
beauties  of  character  in  the  depths  of  their  own  nature. 
We  come  to  ourselves,  we  realize  our  personality  when 
we  accept  the  life  which  is  in  Christ.  Miss  Helen 
Gould,  who  recently  married,  was  loved  by  all  the 
nation.  Why?  Because  she  took  the  lofty  view  of 
life.  She  had  wealth  and  social  position  and  power 
and  a  thousand  inducements  to  a  life  of  pleasure  and 
self  indulgence,  but  she  turned  away  from  all  of  these 
and  devoted  herself  to  the  service  of  others.  To  her, 
the  best  use  of  wealth  and  talent  and  opportunity  was 
in  seeking  to  lift  up  and  serve  those  about  her.  I 
once  read  an  interesting  story  of  a  man  who  was  an 
unbeliever  who  desired  a  famous  painter  to  paint  a 
portrait  of  his  wife,  who  was  a  Christian.  He  was 
especially  anxious  that  the  portrait  should  reproduce 
a  certain  expression  which  he  sometimes  caught  upon 
the  face  of  his  beloved  wife,  but  he  could  not  describe 
the  expression  to  his  wife  so  that  she  could  reproduce 
it,  since  it  was  unconscious  to  her;  nor  could  he  de- 
scribe it  to  the  painter  in  terms  sufficiently  definite 
for  him  to  search  for  it  while  his  subject  was  sitting 
before  him.  The  painter  was  left,  therefore,  to  ex- 
periment. He  sought  by  various  means  to  bring  out 
the  best  expression  upon  her  face.  He  spoke  of  travel 
and  beautiful  architecture,  of  mountains,  of  oceans, 
of  poetry,  of  music,  and  many  other  inspiring  themes. 


ABUNDANT  LIFE  27 

He  submitted  several  sketches  to  the  waiting  husband, 
but  none  of  them  contained  the  expression  he  so  much 
desired.  At  length,  the  painter  talked  to  the  lady 
about  Jesus  Christ  and  His  salvation,  about  God,  the 
Father,  and  His  love.  These  subjects  called  forth  a 
new  expression.  He  painted  the  portrait  and  submitted 
it  to  the  husband,  who  exclaimed,  "There!  At  last, 
you  have  it."  This  is  a  parable  of  life.  Only  Christ 
can  call  forth  the  most  beautiful  qualities  of  character 
in  the  facial  expression.  There  are  hidden  deeps  in 
all  of  us.    Christ  alone  can  explore  them. 

The  life  which  we  have  in  Christ  manifests  itself 
also  in  its  power  to  transform  other  lives.  This  is 
the  great  power  which  Christ  imparts.  Some  one  has 
said  concerning  Jesus,  "He  has  shown  extraordinary 
power  to  transform  bad  men  into  good  men.  He  has 
also  shown  extraordinary  power  to  transform  these 
good  men  into  agents  of  redemption."  He  imparts  to 
men  some  of  His  own  power.  The  Christian  who  lives 
the  true  life  in  Christ  is  unconsciously  transforming 
his  surroundings.  The  touch  of  such  a  man  causes 
the  flowers  of  happiness  to  spring  up  in  the  lives  of 
others.  The  presence  of  such  a  life  dispels  all  shadows 
of  sin  and  sorrow.  The  energy  of  such  a  life  re- 
enforces  many  a  feeble  will.  Who  would  not  have 
the  life  that  is  in  Christ? 

I  cannot  close  this  sermon  without  pointing  out  the 
alternative  to  the  life  in  Christ.  If  we  refuse  that  life, 
we  shape  our  fate.  For  one  thing,  we  shall  die  in 
our  sins.  Without  Christ  we  shall  never  know  the 
depths  of  our  own  nature.  The  jewels  that  are  hidden 
there  or  which  might  be  produced  there  will  never 
come  to  light.  Our  nature  will  shrivel.  It  will  grow 
smaller  as  life  nears  the  end.    It  will  degenerate.    Life 


28  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

abundant  is  ours  for  the  asking.  "Turn  unto  me  and 
live"  is  Christ's  word  to  the  sinner.  Turn  unto  Me 
and  discover  yourselves.  Turn  unto  Me  and  find  sal- 
vation and  find  the  eternal  life  that  is  in  God. 


Ill 


THE  RESURRECTION  LIFE  OF  THE 
BELIEVER 

Col.  3 :  I — "If  ye  then  he  risen  with  Christ,  seek 
the  things  that  are  above." 

AS  we  read  the  New  Testament,  we  find  that 
there  are  three  stages  in  the  presentation  of 
the  idea  of  the  resurrection.  First,  there  is 
the  proclamation  of  the  great  fact  of  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus.  The  early  preaching  was  a  preaching  of 
Jesus  and  the  resurrection.  This  corner  stone  of 
Christianity  was  made  very  prominent,  and  in  the 
early  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Acts  we  find  repeated 
emphasis  put  upon  it.  The  next  stage  was  the 
use  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  the  pledge  of 
Christianity  for  the  resurrection  of  believers.  Our 
bodies  are  to  be  raised  because  the  body  of  Jesus 
was  raised.  The  resurrection  was  the  demonstration 
of  the  possibility  of  the  resurrection  of  our  bodies, 
and  the  New  Testament  writers,  while  ascribing  it  to 
the  power  of  God,  do  not  seek  to  explain  it  further. 
A  workman  in  the  laboratory  of  the  great  Faraday 
knocked  a  silver  vase  into  a  vessel  of  acid.  It  was 
dissolved,  and  the  workman  was  greatly  distressed. 
Faraday  put  another  kind  of  acid  into  the  vessel,  and 
the  dissolved  particles  of  the  silver  vase  were  pre- 
cipitated in  a  mass  at  the  bottom  of  the  vessel.    This 

29 


30  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

was  taken  out,  and  Faraday  had  it  made  into  a  more 
beautiful  vase  than  the  original.  God  is  a  great 
chemist  who  will  gather  together  the  particles  and 
raise  again  the  bodies  of  the  dead  in  Christ.  This 
does  not  mean  the  exact  particles  of  the  body  that 
dies,  but  from  the  body  which  dies  will  come  in  some 
way  the  resurrection  body. 

The  third  stage  in  the  New  Testament  idea  of  the 
resurrection  was  the  declaration  by  the  Apostle  Paul 
that  the  present  spiritual  life  of  the  Christian  is  a 
resurrection  life.  We  have  been  spiritually  raised 
from  the  dead.  The  quality  of  the  life  which  we  now 
have  is  the  same  in  kind  as  that  which  we  shall  have 
in  glory.  The  difference  is  one  of  degree.  In  the 
text  the  Apostle  speaks  of  this  resurrection  life  of  the 
Christian. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  a  few  marks  of  the 
resurrection  life  of  the  believer. 

I.  The  resurrection  life  of  the  believer  in  Christ  is 
a  hidden  life.  The  Apostle  says:  "Ye  are  dead,  and 
your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God."  This  hidden 
life  means  that  it  is  a  secure  life.  We  are  in  the 
hand  of  Christ,  and  Christ's  hand  is  held  in  the  great 
hand  of  God,  the  Father,  and  no  one  is  able  to  pluck 
us  out  of  His  hand.  As  a  hidden  life,  it  is  not  easy 
for  the  outsider  to  understand  it.  The  life  of  the 
bird  that  flies  through  the  air  is  hidden  to  the  fish 
that  swims  in  the  sea.  It  is  a  different  kind  of  life, 
and  hence  unknown  to  the  living  creature  in  the  water. 
The  life  of  the  Christian  is  a  hidden  life.  The  un- 
believer cannot  understand  it,  because  he  does  not 
conform  to  the  conditions  necessary  to  an  understand- 
ing of  it.  The  Christian  says  to  the  outside  world, 
"Come  and  see" ;  "taste  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good." 


THE  RESURRECTION  LIFE  31 

Sometimes  it  is  objected  that  this  is  an  unfair  test. 
"Give  us  open  demonstration — clear,  convincing  and 
compelling  proof  that  the  Christian  life  is  true,  and 
we  will  believe."  This  is  what  is  said  by  non-Chris- 
tians to  Christians.  But  is  it  really  an  unfair  test? 
Religious  certainty  can  only  be  religiously  conditioned, 
just  as  in  other  departments  certain  conditions  are 
necessary  to  the  kind  of  certainty  required.  Mathe- 
matical certainty  is  mathematically  conditioned.  Only 
the  trained  mathematician  can  see  the  force  of  a  math- 
ematical demonstration.  Artistic  judgment  and  artis- 
tic certainty  are  artistically  conditioned.  No  one  can 
give  an  assured  conviction  regarding  a  great  painting 
who  has  not  had  his  artistic  faculties  trained.  It  is 
not  an  unfair  test  in  mathematics  or  art  when  we  say 
that  certainty  in  these  departments  must  be  conditioned 
mathematically  and  artistically,  and  it  is  not  an  unfair 
test  when  in  religion  we  say  that  religious  certainty 
is  religiously  conditioned.  The  hidden  life,  however, 
is  open  to  any  one  who  will  approach  it  under  proper 
conditions. 

2.  A  second  mark  of  the  resurrection  life  of  the 
believer  is  that  it  is  an  imperfectly  manifested  life. 
There  is  within  the  Christian  more  than  he  can  express 
through  his  body,  through  his  deeds,  words  and  course 
of  life.  No  singer  is  ever  satisfied  with  his  song, 
no  player  is  ever  satisfied  with  his  music,  no  poet  is 
ever  satisfied  with  his  poem,  and  no  preacher  is  ever 
satisfied  with  his  sermon.  There  is  something  greater 
within  struggling  for  expression  than  anything  which 
ever  finds  its  way  into  visible  or  audible  form.  Our 
words  are  sown  in  corruption ;  they  shall  be  raised  in 
incorruption.  Our  deeds  are  sown  in  our  weakness ; 
they  shall  be  raised  in  power.     Christians  groan  and 


32  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

travail  in  this  life,  not  because  they  are  overpowered 
by  something  greater  than  they,  but  because  the  life 
within  them  finds  itself  trammelled  and  hindered  in 
its  expression  by  the  material  world  around  it.  It 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be  when  this  life 
which  we  now  live  shall  be  unfolded  into  its  full 
reality. 

I  go  to  the  muddy  pond  and  look  at  a  little  shoot 
pushing  up  through  the  mud  at  the  bottom,  and  I  say 
to  it,  "Who  and  what  are  you?"  and  it  replies,  "It 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  I  shall  be."  I  go  back 
later,  and  it  has  grown  taller,  and  I  ask  the  same 
question,  and  it  replies,  "It  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
I  shall  be."  I  repeat  the  question  many  times,  with 
the  same  answer.  But  one  day  the  little  growing  shoot 
in  the  darkness  and  mud  of  the  pond  reaches  the  sur- 
face, reaches  the  sun,  and  bursts  open  into  the  beauty 
of  the  pond  lily,  reflecting  in  its  bosom  the  sun  which 
it  has  been  seeking  all  the  time.  Then,  for  the  first 
time,  we  see  what  it  was.  Even  so,  the  Christian 
can  say  at  every  stage  of  the  present  life,  "It  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  I  shall  be,"  but  he  is  reaching 
upward  toward  the  eternal,  and  one  day  he  shall  attain 
the  complete  image  of  Christ  and  burst  into  spiritual 
glory,  and  then  will  be  fulfilled  the  saying,  "I  shall 
be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  His  likeness." 

3.  Again,  the  resurrection  life  of  the  believer  is  a 
gradually  realized  life.  Not  only  is  it  hidden  and  im- 
perfectly expressed,  but  it  is  also  a  progressive  life. 
We  sometimes  forget  this  quality  of  the  spiritual  life. 
We  want  results  quickly.  We  grow  impatient  with 
ourselves.  We  say  we  cannot  wait  for  the  slow  un- 
folding of  character,  and  yet  all  spiritual  results,  all 
high  qualities   are   developed   slowly.     They  planted 


THE  RESURRECTION  LIFE  33 

dynamite  behind  a  ledge  of  rock  in  the  Alps  and 
sought  to  detach  it  from  the  mountain  side.  Time  and 
again  they  exploded  dynamite  behind  the  ledge,  but 
failed  to  detach  it.  Afterwards,  when  the  debris  had 
accumulated,  an  acorn  fell  into  a  crevice  and  sent  its 
tender  roots  down  between  the  rocks,  and  in  a  few 
years,  as  the  young  sapling  grew,  the  ledge  of  rock 
was  displaced  and  sent  to  the  abyss  below.  The  acorn 
succeeded  where  the  dynamite  had  failed.  It  was  the 
slow  and  steady  pressure  of  life. 

I  teach  students  for  the  ministry.  Some  of  them 
grow  impatient  in  their  preparation,  and  I  have  often 
said  to  them:  When  God  builds  a  tree,  it  takes  Him 
about  three  generations,  but  when  he  builds  a  squash, 
it  takes  Him  about  three  weeks.  A  man  can  choose 
which  he  will  be — a  tree  or  a  squash.  We  misjudge 
children,  we  misjudge  church  members,  we  misjudge 
the  church  itself,  when  we  forget  that  the  Christian 
life  is  progressively  realized,  that  it  comes  slowly. 
I  once  saw  in  Pilgrim  Hall  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  the 
restored  ribs  and  keel  of  an  old  ship  that  was  dug  up 
from  the  sands  of  Cape  Cod.  They  were  worm-eaten 
and  mouldy.  As  I  gazed  upon  them  I  reflected  that 
when  the  ship  was  building,  hundreds  of  years  ago, 
these  ribs  and  this  keel  were  in  the  same  position. 
Then,  however,  it  was  a  prophecy  of  a  ship  that  was 
to  be.  When  I  saw  it,  it  was  a  reminiscence  of  a  ship 
that  had  been.  The  imperfect  Christian  is  a  prophecy, 
not  a  reminiscence.  The  imperfect  church  is  a 
prophecy  of  the  glorious  church  that  is  to  be,  not  a 
reminiscence. 

4.  A  fourth  mark  of  the  resurrection  life  of  the 
believer  is  that  it  has  a  constant  upward  tendency. 
"If  ye  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  the  things  that  are 


34  THE   LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

above."  The  resurrection  life  directs  the  gaze  heaven- 
ward, Robert  Broviming  has  a  poem  entitled,  "An 
Epistle."  In  it,  a  young  physician  travelling  in  Pales- 
tine visits  Bethany,  the  home  of  Lazarus,  whom  Jesus 
raised  from  the  dead.  He  observes  Lazarus,  who  had 
been  the  other  side  of  death,  as  he  would  observe 
another  specimen  of  any  kind,  and  writes  back  to  his 
old  instructor  what  he  saw.  Lazarus,  he  said,  this 
man  who  had  been  dead  and  was  alive,  was  not  influ- 
enced by  ordinary  things  like  other  people.  He  seemed 
to  be  following  a  golden  thread  which  ran  across  the 
course  of  life  pursued  by  other  men.  The  coming  of 
the  Roman  army  did  not  terrify  him  as  it  did  others; 
but  an  evil  look  upon  the  face  of  a  little  child  telling 
of  the  activity  of  sin  within  would  terrify  him.  He 
seemed  to  bring  back  from  the  other  life  a  vision  of 
the  eternal. 

I  note,  in  the  next  place,  some  practical  suggestions 
as  to  how  the  Christian  may  make  the  resurrection  life 
real  for  himself.  I  would  note,  first,  that  it  is  to  be 
by  repeated  acts  of  the  will.  The  Apostle  uses  lan- 
guage which  is  exceedingly  practical,  in  connection 
with  the  text.  "Put  off"  the  old  man;  "put  on"  the 
new  man — these  are  the  phrases  which  he  employs. 
It  is  the  figure  of  putting  off  one  garment  and  putting 
on  another.  Put  off  anger,  put  off  resentment,  put  off 
the  revengeful  spirit,  put  off  impatience,  put  off  the 
impure  thought.  Put  on  forgiveness,  put  on  humility, 
put  on  love,  put  on  all  the  graces  of  the  spirit  in 
each  deed,  each  business  transaction,  each  relationship 
in  life.  Do  the  right  thing  and  the  Christian  thing. 
Let  the  will  be  girded;  let  it  be  directed  toward  the 
performance  of  each  duty  in  turn.  ! 

This  constant  action  of  the  will  requires  the  re- 


THE  RESURRECTION  LIFE  35 

nunclation  of  forbidden  things.  We  often  forget  the 
happiness  that  comes  from  renunciation.  Many  a  man 
is  trying  to  be  rich  who  will  never  be  rich.  Many 
a  man  is  trying  to  be  famous  who  never  will  be  famous. 
Many  of  us  make  a  hard  fight  to  make  ourselves  look 
young,  when  we  would  do  well  to  renounce  the  effort 
and  admit  that  we  are  growing  old.  Happiness 
through  renunciation  is  a  great  principle  of  human 
life.  The  Christian  has  learned  the  secret,  and  joy 
fills  his  cup  to  the  brim  when  he  practises  this  great 
principle. 

In  addition  to  this  activity  of  the  will  and  this 
renunciation  of  forbidden  things,  the  Christian  is  also 
to  reckon  himself  alive  unto  God.  He  is  not  only 
dead  to  things  that  are  wrong,  but  alive  to  the  great 
things  that  are  eternal.  When  a  man  yields  himself 
up  to  this  great  ideal,  when  he  counts  his  life  as  not 
belonging  to  himself  but  belonging  to  Christ,  there 
enters  into  it  the  resurrection  power.  We  do  not  fully 
appreciate  the  tremendous  energy  that  is  ours  for 
Christian  living  because  we  do  not  lay  hold  of  the 
mighty  power  that  is  available  for  us. 

When  Lovey  Mary  went  to  Niagara  Falls,  Mrs. 
Wiggs  said  to  her :  "Bring  me  a  bottle  of  that  Niagara 
water.  I  always  did  want  to  see  what  them  falls 
looks  like."  We  smile  at  Mrs.  Wiggs,  and  yet  many 
a  Christian  imagines  that  he  has  a  conception  of  the 
resurrection  power,  the  spiritual  energy  available  for 
him,  judging  from  the  little  phial  of  it  which  he  has 
in  his  own  life.  Let  him  yield  himself  up  completely 
to  his  Christian  calling,  and  he  discovers  a  mighty 
cataract  of  energy  available  to  his  hands.  I  suppose 
the  Apostle  Paul  had  in  mind  some  such  thought 
of  the  resurrection  power  when  in  one  of  his  Epistles 


36  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

he  expressed  the  desire  that  he  might  attain  unto 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  He  did  not  doubt  that 
he  would  be  raised  from  the  dead.  He  knew  that  his 
body  would  be  raised  up  by  the  power  of  God,  But 
he  was  thinking  of  the  glory  of  the  resurrection  morn- 
ing when  the  light  of  the  eternal  should  shine  upon 
his  character.  What  he  desired  was  that  his  moral 
and  spiritual  character  should  harmonize  with  the 
glories  of  that  occasion,  that  he  should  be  equal  to  it, 
level  with  it  in  attainment.  His  feeling  was  somewhat 
Uke  the  feeling  of  a  bride  preparing  for  the  marriage 
ceremony.  Her  fingers  tremble  as  she  arranges  her 
hair  and  her  garments.  Her  heart  beats  more  rapidly. 
She  is  full  of  anxiety,  not  because  she  doubts  that  in 
a  little  while  she  will  stand  before  the  altar,  not  that 
she  doubts  that  the  man  she  is  to  marry  will  take 
her  by  the  hand.  Her  tremulousness  is  due  rather  to 
the  fact  that  soon  she  is  to  be  the  observed  of  all 
observers.  The  light  of  a  great  occasion  is  to  shine 
upon  her  as  the  centre,  and  what  she  desires  is  that 
she  may  be  worthy  of  the  occasion,  arrayed  in  such 
manner  as  that  all  will  recognize  the  agreement  of 
her  appearance  with  the  splendour  of  the  surroundings. 
Even  so  the  Apostle  thought  of  the  glories  of  the 
resurrection  life,  and  he  sought  daily  to  live  the  risen 
life,  as  all  of  us  who  are  followers  of  the  same  Master 
should  seek  to  live  that  life. 


IV 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE 

Matthew  20 :  28 — "The  Son  of  man  came  not  to 
he  ministered  unto,  hut  to  minister." 

IN  Christ's  teaching  the  emphasis  fell  on  two  chief 
points  in  regard  to  man.  The  first  had  to  do 
with  his  relations  to  God.  It  has  been  remarked 
that  Christ  did  not  classify  men  educationally,  as  igno- 
rant and  learned;  nor  financially,  as  rich  and  poor; 
nor  socially,  as  belonging  to  lower  or  higher  classes; 
nor  even  morally,  as  good  and  bad,  for  the  bad  could 
become  good  if  they  would.  Christ  classified  men 
religiously  as  believers  or  unbelievers.  Thus  He 
emphasized  their  relations  to  God.  This  is  the  primary 
thing  in  human  character,  faith. 

The  other  point  He  emphasized  was  character  as 
growing  out  of  faith.  What  kind  of  life  does  your 
faith  produce?  Character  has  been  defined  as  salva- 
tion if  you  think  of  it  as  deliverance  from  evil;  or 
as  redemption  if  you  think  of  Christ's  sufferings  to 
secure  it;  or  as  heaven  if  you  think  of  the  inner  bless- 
edness which  comes  with  it.  But  the  best  definition 
of  character  on  its  earthly  side  is  service.  For  service 
implies  a  preceding  salvation,  and  it  can  only  be  ren- 
dered in  the  Christian  sense  when  the  redemptive  law 
of  Christ  operates  in  us  and  we  are  willing  to  suffer 
in  order  to  serve.  And  service  brings  a  foretaste  of 
heaven. 

37 


38  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Let  us  give  our  thoughts  to  Christ's  law  of  service. 
I.  I  call  attention  first  to  that  law  as  it  appears 
everywhere  in  Christ's  teachings  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  New  Testament  reverses  the  ordinary  law 
of  human  happiness.  Dr.  Van  Dyke  says  it  is  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  happiness  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  poverty,  and  on  the  east  by  obscurity,  and 
on  the  west  by  simplicity,  and  on  the  south  by  ser- 
vitude. This  is  a  total  misconception  of  the  geography 
of  happiness.  Here  is  a  better  description  and  it  is 
from  the  New  Testament.  Happiness  is  bounded  on 
the  north  by  lack  of  sympathy,  on  the  east  by  isola- 
tion, on  the  west  by  self-assertiveness,  and  on  the  south 
by  unwillingness  to  serve. 

The  New  Testament  reverses  the  ordinary  law  of 
human  greatness.  To  be  great  was  measured  by  the 
number  of  slaves  or  servants  a  man  owned.  Christ 
taught  that  greatness  was  measured  by  the  number 
of  fellow-men  we  can  serve.  Not  the  crown  or 
sceptre  was  the  measure  of  greatness.  He  that  is  least, 
he  that  is  servant  of  all,  shall  be  greatest,  was  Christ's 
word. 

Christ  taught  that  service  is  the  real  attitude  towards 
evil.  Several  attitudes  are  possible  as  a  man  looks 
out  on  the  evils  of  the  world.  He  may  become  a  pessi- 
mist and  say  it  is  all  hopeless.  Or  he  may  become 
a  revolutionist.  But,  says  the  New  Testament,  this 
is  not  the  way  to  change  the  world.  Revolution  is 
only  a  temporary  cure  for  the  evils.  You  put  down 
your  Caesar  or  Nero  by  revolution,  and  human  nature 
will  reassert  itself  and  a  new  Csesar  or  Nero  will  mount 
the  throne  and  rule  the  world.  You  roll  your  stone 
of  reform  or  revolution  laboriously  and  painfully  to 
the  top  of  the  hill  and  the  law  of  gravitation  makes 


THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE  39 

it  slip  from  your  grasp  and  down  it  goes  to  the  bot- 
tom, and  all  your  work  is  to  be  done  over  again.  "It 
was  a  proof  of  the  matchless  greatness  of  Jesus  that 
He  stood  three  years  in  the  presence  of  the  Roman 
Empire  and  never  struck  it  once,"  says  Charles  Jef- 
ferson. His  business  was  to  strike  the  human  heart, 
and  by  striking  the  human  heart  He  overturned  the 
Roman  Empire. 

If  you  adopt  the  method  of  reform  merely,  then 
you  will  have  to  have  a  new  reform  for  every  evil. 

No,  says  Jesus.  Service  is  the  Christian  law  for 
regenerating  the  world.  In  the  parable  of  the  talents 
we  learn  that  use  is  the  law  of  the  Kingdom,  and  that 
disuse  debars  from  the  Kingdom.  In  the  parable  of 
the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  we  learn  that  with  the  needy 
suffering  at  our  gate  we  dare  not  live  on  in  forgetful- 
ness  of  his  sores  and  poverty,  on  pain  of  being  sent 
to  the  realm  of  anguish,  which  was  built  as  the  abode 
of  the  selfish.  In  the  parable  of  the  blighting  and 
withering  of  the  barren  fig  tree,  we  learn  that  there  is 
not  standing  room  in  God's  world  for  the  unfruitful 
life. 

In  that  lowly  act  of  Jesus  in  the  upper  chamber  we 
have  the  glorification  of  service.  "Knowing  that  he 
came  from  God,"  says  John,  conscious  of  His  pre- 
incarnate  glory;  and  "knowing  that  he  goeth  to  God," 
he  adds,  conscious  of  the  glory  which  was  to  follow, 
Jesus  took  a  basin  of  water  and  napkin  and  removed 
the  sandals  of  the  disciples  and,  according  to  oriental 
custom,  bathed  their  dusty  feet.  This  lowly  act  of 
service  was  a  pearl  to  be  strung  on  the  same  string 
with  His  pre-mundane  and  post-mundane  glory.  It 
was  a  pebble  set  in  a  frame- work  of  diamonds.  It  was 
as  a  clod  between  pillars  of  gold.     It  was  as  a  piece 


40  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  charcoal  surrounded  by  stars.  To  serve  is  to  ke 
like  God.  The  text  is  the  climax  of  the  representation : 
"The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister."  Nothing  more  can  be  said  than  this. 
No  wonder  the  judgment  of  men  will  turn  on  the 
point  of  service.  No  wonder  the  New  Testament  in- 
sists that  God  elects  men  from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  to  service.  We  talk  sometimes  of  the 
mysterious  side  of  election,  and  there  is  a  mysterious 
side.  But  one  side  is  not  mysterious.  We  are  elected 
to  become  the  incarnate  love  of  God  and  purpose  of 
God  to  redeem.  God,  in  electing  us  to  salvation,  says, 
"I  have  elected  you  to  be  my  lips  to  speak,  to  be  my 
feet  to  go  on  errands,  to  be  my  hands  to  labour,  to  be 
my  heart  to  love.  I  have  no  redeeming  hands  save 
yours,  no  redeeming  feet  save  yours,  no  redeeming 
heart  on  earth  save  yours." 

No  wonder  that  judgment  is  made  to  hinge  on 
service  and  that  at  the  last  day  amid  the  flaming 
splendours  of  the  last  great  assize  the  gates  of  Paradise 
fly  open  to  those  who  were  servants  of  their  brethren. 
"When  I  was  hungry  ye  gave  me  meat,  when  I  was 
thirsty,  ye  gave  me  drink,"  these  were  the  simple  yet 
marvellously  suggestive  words  of  the  Judge  as  He 
admits  His  own  into  the  everlasting  Kingdom. 

II.  Observe  in  the  second  place,  then,  that  service 
is  the  touchstone  of  all  human  endeavour. 

However  vast  the  enterprise  it  will  come  to  naught 
unless  it  conforms  to  the  law  of  service.  However 
lowly  the  deed  it  will  not  fail  of  reward  if  it  is  a 
deed  of  service.  The  pyramids  of  Egypt  were  built 
by  kings  to  glorify  themselves.  A  hundred  thousand 
men  were  employed  altogether  and  it  took  nearly  half 
a  century  to  build  the  large  pyramids.    Try  to  imagine 


THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE  41 

the  toil  and  anguish  of  the  slave  driven  by  the  master's 
lash  to  rear  these  piles  of  stone,  with  square  base  and 
triangular  sides,  four  hundred  and  five  hundred  feet 
into  the  air.  And  for  what?  To  serve  as  granaries? 
No.  To  serve  as  astronomical  observatories?  No. 
To  serve  as  lighthouses  ?  No.  But  to  enclose  the  body 
of  the  Egyptian  monarch  when  he  died !  What,  then, 
is  the  judgment  of  human  reason  and  of  God?  This, 
that  they  serve  no  adequate  purpose.  They  cannot 
be  linked  into  the  world's  civilization  in  any  helpful 
way.  They  are  monuments  not  of  service,  but  of 
human  pride.  They  are  useless.  They  are  barren 
fig  trees. 

There  is  another  ancient  structure  In  Athens,  known 
as  the  Parthenon,  erected  by  the  Greeks  in  the  age  of 
Pericles  as  a  temple.  It  is  in  every  sense  a  worthy 
product  of  Greek  architectural  genius.  Capable  judges 
praise  its  incomparable  beauty  and  grace  and  lament 
that  the  ravages  of  time  have  marred  some  of  its 
lovely  lines.  In  the  British  Museum,  among  Its  rarest 
art  treasures,  are  pieces  of  statuary  taken  from  this 
ancient  temple.  How  useful  this  ancient  structure. 
Formerly  it  was  used  for  worship,  and  through  the 
ages  has  been  giving  Instruction  and  Inspiring  to  higher 
things  In  art.  The  judgment  of  history  on  the  Par- 
thenon is  that  It  served  a  useful  end,  and  man  would 
preserve  Its  smallest  part  as  long  as  possible. 

Now  these  things  are  a  parable.  Mankind  may  be 
divided  Into  two  classes:  Pyramid  builders  and  Par- 
thenon builders.  There  are  little  pyramids  and  great 
pyramids;  little  Parthenons  and  great  Parthenons. 
But  every  human  being  builds  one  or  the  other  with  his 
life.  The  Parthenon  represents  the  law  of  service, 
the  pyramid  represents  human  vanity  and  ambition. 


42  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

What  is  your  gift  from  God,  your  opportunity?  I 
would  say  build  a  Parthenon  with  it.  Miss  Frances 
Ridley  Havergal  had  a  sweet  voice.  She  resolved  to 
sing  nothing  but  religious  songs  with  it,  songs  in  praise 
of  Christ.  This  I  think  was  a  mistaken  and  extreme 
view.  For  there  are  many  other  songs  which  minister 
and  bless  in  their  own  way.  But  when  Miss  Havergal 
penned  the  prayer : 

"Take  my  voice  and  let  me  sing 
Ever  only  of  my  King," 

she  declared  in  effect  that  she  would  cultivate  her 
vocal  gifts  as  a  means  of  service. 

Are  you  a  teacher?  Then  build  a  Parthenon  with 
your  teaching,  not  a  pyramid. 

Public  office  is  a  public  trust.  Too  often  politicians 
and  political  parties  use  their  opportunity  to  erect 
pyramids  instead  of  Parthenons.  Have  you  talent  of 
any  kind,  wealth,  position,  influence?  Remember  that 
the  call  made  upon  you  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is 
that  you  use  it  to  build  a  Parthenon.    Serve. 

A  young  man  once  told  Phillips  Brooks  that  he 
wanted  to  live  a  life  original  and  great  and  asked  for 
his  advice.  Mr.  Brooks  wrote  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
folded  it  and  handed  it  to  the  young  man  and  told 
him  to  read  it  when  he  reached  home.  This  is  the 
advice  he  read:  "Stand  in  the  moonlight  and  cast  a 
shadow."  To  cast  a  shadow  is  to  do  a  different  thing 
from  others;  is  to  be  original,  and  it  is  a  great  thing 
to  be  original.  The  young  man  felt  the  rebuke  to  his 
pride  and  returned  to  Mr.  Brooks  for  further  advice, 
saying  he  wanted  his  life  to  be  useful  as  well  as  original 
and  great.    Again  the  great  preacher  wrote  on  paper 


THE   LAW  OF  SERVICE  43 

and  handed  it  to  the  young  man.  Returning  home  he 
read:  "Stand  in  the  sunHght  and  cast  a  shadow,  and 
let  a  tired  workman  eat  his  dinner  in  it."  In  short, 
Mr.  Brooks  desired  to  impress  the  great  duty:  Make 
your  life  a  Parthenon,  not  a  pyramid.  Do  something 
useful  to  others,  be  it  never  so  small. 

I  apply  the  same  law  of  service  to  the  universe  as 
a  whole.  Astronomy  has  amazed  us  by  its  revelations 
of  the  vastness  of  the  physical  creation,  and  we  agree 
with  the  Psalmist  in  saying,  "The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God,  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork." 
But  that  is  not  all.  The  universe  is  not  a  pyramid, 
but  a  Parthenon.  It  is  not  an  end,  but  a  means.  There 
is  some  great  use,  some  wondrous  shining  goal  ahead, 
which  God  is  going  to  achieve  through  this  vast  and 
ponderous  frame.  As  there  is  "one  God,  one  law, 
one  element,"  so  there  is  "one  far-off  divine  event  to 
which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

III.  Consider  next  the  cost  of  service.  Christ  "gave 
His  life"  a  ransom  for  many.  All  the  best  things  are 
produced  at  great  cost.  No  science  has  calculated 
fully  the  heat  and  pressure  required  in  nature  to  pro- 
duce diamonds.  Human  genius  has  not  yet  cast  up 
the  cost  in  sunHght  and  moisture  and  electricity  and 
carbon  and  vital  force  to  produce  the  lowliest  plant. 

If  we  could  trace  the  processes  of  nature  we  would 
find  that  "dying  to  live"  is  the  greatest  underlying 
principle.  A  natural  force  or  energy  passes  out  of  one 
form,  dies  to  its  old  self,  in  order  to  rise  to  a  new 
form  of  existence.  The  electric  light  that  blazes  above 
you  on  the  street  at  night  is  the  transformed  energy 
of  the  coal  which  heated  the  furnace  of  the  dynamo. 
The  coal  surrendered  itself  to  the  flame  and  rose  on 
stepping-stones  of  its  dead  self  to  higher  things.    The 


44  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

fern  plants,  or  other  vegetable  life  of  a  past  age  gave 
up  its  being  to  become  the  coal  beds  of  nature.  They, 
too,  died  "that  they  might  live."  The  ferns  and  vege- 
tation drew  their  energy  from  the  heat  and  power 
of  the  sunlight  of  the  primitive  age  which  nourished 
them.  The  sunlight  thus  died  that  it  might  live  again 
in  the  ferns.  Thus  we  pass  from  electric  light  through 
coal  beds  and  vegetable  life  to  primitive  sunlight.  We 
might  apply  with  some  variation  of  language  the  very 
words  of  the  apostle  in  Philippians  in  reference  to 
Christ,  to  the  primitive  sunshine:  "Being  in  the  form 
of  sunshine,  it  counted  it  not  a  thing  to  be  grasped 
to  be  on  an  equality  with  the  sun,  but  emptied  itself, 
and  took  the  form  of  the  fern  plants  and  coal  beds 
and  lay  buried  for  ages  in  the  heart  of  the  earth; 
wherefore  man  hath  highly  exalted  it  and  given  it  a 
name  above  the  other  forces  of  nature  in  causing  it 
to  illumine  his  darkness  and  dispel  his  shadows." 

This  means  that  the  world  is  built  on  the  principle 
of  the  cross,  that  real  service  costs  life.  If  we  could 
begin  with  the  tiniest  plant  or  flower  and  unlock  the 
secret  door  and  enter  the  secret  path  leading  back  to 
the  secret  of  its  being  and  the  real  forces  which  make 
it,  I  think  we  would  find  it  leading  us  upward  and 
shining  with  increasing  brightness  until  at  last  we 
would  stand  before  the  eternal  God  and  we  would 
discover  that  the  ultimate  secret  of  life,  that  baffling 
mystery  of  science,  is  God,  giving  Himself.  Back  of 
the  sunbeams  and  raindrops  and  atmosphere  is  God, 
not  doling  out  material  little  by  little  to  build  the 
flower,  not  building  by  proxy,  but  by  personal  self- 
giving. 

We  would  thus  see  that  all  the  universe  is  a  place 
where  God  is  doing  what  Jesus   did  in  the  upper 


THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE  45 

chamber  when  He  bathed  the  dusty  feet  of  the  dis- 
ciples. The  sunhght  is  His  towel  and  the  clouds  His 
basin  which  He  carries  about  to  minister  to  the  needs 
of  every  living  thing. 

All  real  service  costs,  Christ  seemed  to  serve  with- 
out cost  of  energy  or  effort.  His  touch  healed  the 
leper.  His  command  sent  the  demons  into  the  swine. 
Unconscious  power  passed  out  of  Him  to  heal  the 
sick  and  infirm  woman.  It  all  seemed  spontaneous. 
It  looks  like  magic.  There  is  no  suggestion  of  cost, 
or  effort,  or  struggle. 

There  was  a  twofold  reason  for  this.  The  first 
was  that  the  whole  bent  and  direction  of  His  life 
was  to  serve  man  and  thus  God's  power  reinforced 
His.  He  moved  on  and  with  the  tide  of  the  divine 
love  and  desire  to  heal.  The  other  reason  was  that 
the  struggle,  the  agonizing  of  His  life  was  in  the  secret 
place  of  prayer.  The  place  of  agony  in  His  life  was 
not  the  market  place  or  the  public  street  where  He 
did  His  great  deeds,  but  in  the  closet,  or  on  the  moun- 
tain-top where  He  replenished  His  supply  of  divine 
strength  and  climbed  up  the  long  ascent  of  prayer 
to  the  fountains  of  eternal  refreshment.  Let  us  not 
forget  this  and  imagine  that  there  was  no  struggle 
in  Christ's  career.  He  was  tempted  as  we  are  tempted 
but  without  sin.  He  overcame  circumstances  by  stren- 
uous endeavour.  He  breasted  the  storm  by  the  in- 
vincible energy  of  prayer  and  holy  endeavour.  But 
all  His  higher  moral  conquests  He  won  that  He  might 
bring  the  wealth  and  power  of  His  glorious  life  to 
the  task  of  serving  men  and  thus  glorifying  God  the 
Father  whose  love  He  came  to  reveal  and  express. 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  UNTO  HIMSELF 

Romans  14 :  7-8 — "For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself, 
and  none  dieth  to  himself.  For  ivhether  we  live,  we 
live  unto  the  Lord;  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto 
the  Lord:  whether  we  live  therefore,  or  die,  we  are 
the  Lord's." 

VERY  remarkable  is  the  movement  of  the  thought 
of  the  apostle  Paul.  His  mind  swings  back 
and  forth  between  two  great  groups  of  ideas 
like  the  swing  of  a  pendulum.  He  mounts  up  on  steady 
wing  and  gives  us  some  glorious  vision  of  the  divine, 
and  at  once  he  turns  about  and  asks  what  it  signifies 
on  the  human  side.  Or  he  is  dealing  with  some  very- 
practical  daily  duty,  and  he  suddenly  bethinks  himself, 
how  is  this  duty  to  be  performed  by  the  weak  and 
faltering  hands  of  man,  and  this  leads  him  back  to 
the  divine  side  of  truth  again.  Thus  his  mind  swings 
back  and  forth  between  the  mystical  and  the  practical, 
the  divine  and  the  human ;  thus  he  binds  up  religion 
and  morality,  faith  and  conduct,  in  a  bundle  of  life 
together.  He  always  feels  that  conduct  breaks  down 
without  the  religious  faith  behind  it ;  and  that  religious 
faith  is  an  empty  thing  without  the  corresponding 
practice. 

Take  one  or  two  examples.  In  Romans  5 : 1-2 
he  says:   "Being  therefore  justified  by  faith,  we  have 

46 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF      47 

peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ; 
through  whom  also  we  have  had  our  access  by  faith 
into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand;  and  we  rejoice 
in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God." 

Thus  he  takes  us  by  the  hand  and  leads  us  through 
the  door  of  faith  up  into  the  very  presence  of  God 
so  that  Heaven  becomes  so  vivid  and  real  to  us  that 
we  rejoice  in  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  But  the 
light  shines  back  upon  this  life,  and  he  adds:  "And 
not  only  so,  but  we  also  rejoice  in  our  tribulations; 
knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  patience;  and  pa- 
tience, appro vedness ;  and  appro vedness,  hope ;  and 
hope  putteth  not  to  shame;  because  the  love  of  God 
hath  been  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  through  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  was  given  us." 

Or  take  another  passage,  as  in  Colossians  3 :  1-4, 
"If  then  ye  were  raised  together  with  Christ,  seek 
the  things  that  are  above,  where  Christ  is,  seated  on 
the  right  hand  of  God.  Set  your  mind  on  the  things 
that  are  above,  not  on  the  things  that  are  upon  the 
earth.  For  ye  died,  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ 
in  God.  When  Christ  who  is  our  life  shall  be  mani- 
fested, then  shall  ye  also  with  him  be  manifested  in 
glory." 

Here  again  he  leads  us  out  into  the  golden  light  of 
the  risen  glory,  and  lures  our  imagination  away  from 
the  earthly  up  into  the  heavenly,  and  yet  instantly  his 
practical  mind  returns,  and  he  begins:  "Put  to  death 
therefore  your  members  which  are  upon  the  earth; 
fornication,  uncleanness,  passion,  evil  desire,  and 
covetousness,  which  is  idolatry ;  for  which  things'  sake 
Cometh  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  sons  of  disobedi- 
ence." 

In  the  text  his  mind  swings  from  the  opposite  direc- 


48  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

tion.  He  is  telling  the  Roman  Christians  to  be  con- 
siderate of  one  another.  He  is  dealing  with  a  very 
practical  matter.  Some  could  eat  meat  offered  to  idols 
and  others  could  not.  He  exhorts  the  stronger  Chris- 
tians to  be  considerate  of  the  weak,  and  urges  the 
weaker  Christians  not  to  judge  those  who  are  stronger 
and  eat  without  defilement  to  conscience.  Then  he 
feels  the  need  of  a  strong  religious  reinforcement  of 
the  teaching  and  utters  the  words  of  the  text :  "None 
of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  none  dieth  to  himself. 
For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord ;  or  whether 
we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord :  whether  we  live,  there- 
fore, or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's." 

Let  us  study  this  teaching  a  few  moments.  The 
unity  of  our  individual  life  with  other  lives,  and  the 
unity  of  all  our  lives  with  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord. 

We  note  first  the  law  which  binds  us  together  in  a 
common  life.  We  are  bound  together  by  a  physical 
unity.  We  live  on  the  same  planet.  This  physical 
unity  underlies  all  kinds  of  unities,  commercial,  social, 
political.  Somebody  was  careless  in  the  powder  mill 
recently,  and  a  whole  village  was  wrecked.  It  is  said 
yellow  fever  entered  the  South  in  the  last  New  Orleans 
epidemic  through  the  carelessness  of  a  United  States 
quarantine  officer  and  all  the  nation  suffered.  A 
Mohammedan  devotee  goes  to  Mecca  and  drinks  from 
the  sacred  but  very  filthy  pool  and  is  taken  ill  on  his 
return  home  and  as  a  consequence  Asiatic  cholera 
begins  to  stalk  across  Europe,  and  all  the  machinery 
of  many  governments  begins  to  move  to  stamp  it  out. 
How  dependent  we  all  are  upon  one  another !  Many 
a  night  on  a  sleeper,  travelling  thirty  or  forty  miles  an 
hour,  have  I  thought  of  the  engineer  away  forward, 
and  I  have  been  thankful  that  he  was  sober  and  cool 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF     49 

and  conscientious,  and  have  felt  like  going  forward 
at  the  end  of  the  journey  to  thank  him,  I  note  that 
beautiful  marvel  of  mechanical  construction,  the  auto- 
mobile, as  it  speeds  past  me,  and  I  reflect  upon  its 
many  parts,  and  their  nice  adjustments,  and  the  many 
workmen  who  combined  in  its  production,  and  the 
results  if  a  single  part  were  to  give  way,  and  I  am 
amazed  at  the  inter-dependence  of  the  parts  of  the 
machine  and  of  buyers  and  riders  on  the  one  side, 
and  workmen  on  the  other.  Now  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  to  be  a  perfect  moral  and  spiritual  mechanism, 
when  it  is  completed,  and  we  are  the  workmen  who 
are  fitting  the  parts  together. 

The  law  which  binds  us  together  is  in  part  our 
common  humanity.  We  have  a  common  hunger  and 
thirst,  and  common  longing  for  friendship,  and  sym- 
pathy and  love.  We  are  subject  to  the  same  perils 
and  limitations,  and  all  alike  destined  to  a  brief  earthly 
life  and  then  departure  into  the  world  which  lies 
beyond  our  human  ken. 

"The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power 
And  all  that  rank  or  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour 

The  path  of  glory  leads  but  to  the  grave." 

Again,  we  are  bound  together  by  the  fact  that  we 
have  a  common  likeness,  the  image  of  God.  All  mem- 
bers of  the  human  race  then  are  morally  and  spirit- 
ually the  closest  of  kin,  because  they  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  divine  image.  The  Old  Testament  is  a  wonder- 
ful book  in  many  ways,  but  in  none  more  wonderful 
than  its  reverence  for  humanity.  No  people  of  an- 
tiquity save  the  Jews,  and  no  literature  of  antiquity 


50  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

save  the  Old  Testament,  valued  man  for  this  great 
reason  that  man  is  made  in  God's  image.  The  death 
penalty  was  enjoined  in  the  case  of  murder  because 
the  murdered  man  bore  God's  image.  "For  in  the 
image  of  God,  created  he  him."  Commanders  and 
Kings  of  ancient  times  used  men  as  tools  merely  to 
build  pyramids,  or  win  battles  and  extend  dominion ! 
They  were  worth  their  rations  as  soldiers  or  brick- 
layers if  they  cculd  be  used,  and  they  were  as  worth- 
less as  Australian  rabbits  or  the  Gypsy  moth  of  New 
England,  only  to  be  exterminated,  if  they  were  in  the 
way.  But  this  was  not  true  in  the  Old  Testament 
view.  Isaiah  comforts  the  forlorn  exiles  in  Babylon 
who  thought  God  had  forgotten  them,  by  pointing  to 
the  skies  at  midnight  and  saying,  "He  that  made  the 
stars  and  sustains  them;  He  that  leads  them  out  and 
calls  them  by  name  as  a  shepherd  his  sheep,  is  not 
faint  or  weary,  nor  has  He  forgotten  you,  O  weary 
captives  and  fainting  believers.  ...  He  knows  your 
names  and  holds  your  individual  destinies  in  the  hollow 
of  His  hand."  Thus  the  Hebrew  prophet  would  make 
them  value  one  another  because  of  God's  valuation 
of  each  of  them. 

It  is  this  image  and  likeness  of  God  in  us  which 
unites  us  in  the  higher  ranges  of  our  being.  From 
it  comes  our  common  heart  hunger  for  God,  our  sense 
of  the  insufficiency  of  the  present  life  and  its  satisfac- 
tions. 

In  Jesus  especially  we  observe  this  recognition  of 
the  moral  unity  of  the  race.  Every  day  of  His  life, 
and  practically  every  act  was  an  illustration  of  the 
truth,  "No  man  liveth  to  himself."  He  saw,  as  no 
one  had  ever  seen,  the  divine  image  in  man.  One 
day  He  held  a  Roman  coin  in  His  hand  and  asked. 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF      51 

"Whose  Image  and  superscription  is  this  ?"  and  added, 
"render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's."  But 
every  day  He  held  human  souls  in  His  hands  and 
asked,  "Whose  image  and  superscription  is  this  ?"  and 
the  answer  was,  "God's,"  and  He  was  ever  saying, 
"render  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's." 

Now  Jesus'  whole  aim  was  to  create  a  new  moral 
kingdom.  The  physical  unity  which  binds  men  together 
in  the  same  planet,  and  the  social  unity  which  binds 
them  together  in  the  same  social  order,  and  the  com- 
mercial unity  which  brings  all  the  parts  of  the  world 
together,  and  the  unity  of  our  common  humanity, 
are  all  conditions  for  the  realization  of  that  higher 
unity  based  on  our  likeness  to  God,  and  capacity  for 
God.  Slowly  He  would  cement  human  ties  and  adjust 
human  relations  until  earthly  society  shall  reproduce 
the  harmony  and  rhythm  and  glory  and  beauty  of 
the  stars  in  their  courses.  This  is  what  He  means 
by  the  prayer,  "Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done 
in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

But  the  supreme  unifying  agency  in  Paul's  mind  is 
the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  has  in  all  the  preceding 
chapters  given  his  glorious  exposition  of  the  cross, 
and  now  he  is  outlining  the  practical  meaning  of  the 
cross.  Up  to  chapter  12  is  the  argument,  "All  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God."  That 
is  his  first  point.  The  second  is,  "being  justified  freely 
by  His  grace  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ, 
whom  God  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  for  our  sins, 
through  faith  in  His  blood."  His  third  point  is,  "Being 
therefore  justified  by  faith,  let  us  have  peace  with 
God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  And  his  fourth 
point  is  our  spiritual  freedom.  "The  law  of  the  spirit 
of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  us  free  from  the  law 


52  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  sin  and  death."  And  finally  he  rounds  out  the 
thought  with  his  triumphant  burst  of  faith  and  hope, 
"Whom  he  foreknew  he  also  foreordained  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  image  of  his  son.  And  whom  he 
foreordained,  them  he  also  called,  and  whom  he 
called  he  also  justified,  and  whom  he  justified  he 
also  glorified."  Having  finished  his  great  argument 
he  begins  chapter  twelve  with  this  thrilling  "There- 
fore." "I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your 
reasonable  service."  Eleven  chapters  of  argument  and 
five  chapters  of  therefores.  The  therefore  of  Chris- 
tianity is  the  practical  side,  and  all  five  of  these  chap- 
ters are  made  up  of  therefores.  In  fact,  all  five  of 
these  chapters  just  give  us  in  one  form  or  another  the 
great  truth,  "No  man  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man 
dieth  to  himself." 

Paul  is  here  sitting  as  a  weaver  at  a  loom,  weaving 
human  lives  together  with  a  new  principle,  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  cross,  the  principle  of  love. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  in  our  Christian  civilization 
to  transport  ourselves,  even  in  imagination,  back  into 
the  old  world  of  selfishness  and  hate  and  isolation 
where  Greek  hated  Roman,  and  Roman  hated  Greek; 
where  Jew  hated  Gentile,  and  Gentile  Jew;  where 
barbarian  and  bondman,  and  soldier  and  civilian,  and 
ignorant  and  learned,  and  poor  and  rich  were  so  many 
names  for  hostile  classes.  It  is  impossible,  I  say,  for 
us  to  realize  conditions  there,  and  what  Paul's  words 
meant  when  he  urged  upon  Christians  that  they  re- 
member each  other,  and  adopt  as  the  law  of  their 
lives  that  "No  man  liveth  unto  himself." 

I  said  Paul  was  a  weaver,  weaving  human  lives 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF      53 

together.  The  Roman  government  said  he  was  an 
anarchist,  or  in  modern  phrase  a  dynamiter,  seeking 
to  overthrow  the  Roman  government.  Strangely- 
enough  Paul  names  his  Gospel  by  the  very  word  which 
moderns  have  selected  for  one  of  the  most  powerful 
explosives,  dynamite.  He  calls  it  the  dynamite  of 
God,  and  really  when  we  think  of  the  iron  band  of 
unity  which  clamped  that  old  Roman  world  together, 
and  the  iron  rod  of  authority  which  compelled  men, 
and  the  hate  and  racial  antagonisms  which  made  fierce 
animals  of  men,  Paul  does  seem  to  be  a  dynamiter. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  dynamite  Paul 
is  putting  under  that  old  Roman  empire.  Here  is 
one  piece  of  it :  "For  even  as  we  have  many  members 
in  one  body,  so  we  who  are  many,  are  one  body  in 
Christ,  and  severally  members  of  one  another."  Oh, 
yes,  Paul,  you  are  a  dangerous  man  to  that  old  Roman 
government ! 

Here  is  another  charge  of  dynamite  sent  right  into 
the  Roman  capitol :  "Bless  them  that  persecute  you, 
bless  and  curse  not.  Rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice 
and  weep  with  them  that  weep."  Be  careful,  Paul, 
the  Roman  power  will  resent  your  words.  You  are 
a  dangerous  man. 

Then  think  of  the  awful  heresy  of  this:  "If  it  be 
possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably  with 
all  men.  Avenge  not  yourselves,  beloved ;  for  it  is 
written,  'Vengeance  belongeth  unto  me,  I  will  recom- 
pense, saith  the  Lord.'  "  Paul,  this  is  anarchy  and 
sedition.  Your  head  is  in  danger.  The  Roman  Em- 
peror and  the  Roman  army  will  hound  you  to  death 
for  this.  What  will  the  soldiers  say  who  love  to  pil- 
'age  towns  and  villages? 

But  there  is  more  of  this  dynamite.    Listen  to  this 


54  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

slogan  of  the  revolutionist:  "Owe  no  man  anything 
save  to  love  one  another ;  for  he  that  loveth  his  neigh- 
bour hath  fulfilled  the  law."  Be  careful,  Paul,  Rome 
has  a  great  army  and  a  great  navy  and  they  are  made 
to  kill.  You  are  a  dynamiter  of  the  worst  kind,  for 
your  words  will  destroy  armies  and  navies  if  carried 
out. 

Not  only  is  Paul  giving  such  revolutionary  ideas 
to  his  Roman  readers,  but  actually  these  principles  are 
beginning  to  work.  Men  are  beginning  to  live  for 
one  another  and  recognize  Paul's  teachings.  Even  the 
Greek  city  of  Corinth  has  in  it  a  group  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  strangers  yonder  at  Rome.  Read  the 
last  chapter,  the  sixteenth,  a  chapter  rarely  read  and 
still  more  rarely  preached  from !  Yet  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  chapters  ever  written,  considering  the  time, 
place  and  circumstances.  The  literature  of  the  period 
has  nothing  to  compare  with  it.  It  is  mainly  a  list  of 
salutations  and  personal  greetings.  Tertius  is  Paul's 
amanuensis,  and  before  closing  everybody  wanted  to 
send  greetings  to  everybody  else.  Paul  sends  a  long 
list  of  personal  greetings,  and  then  numerous  others 
ask  to  be  remembered.  "Timothy  my  fellow-worker 
saluteth  3^ou ;  also  Lucius  and  Jason  and  Sosipater  my 
kinsman."  Tertius,  the  amanuensis,  does  not  want  to 
be  left  out,  so  he  adds :  "I,  Tertius,  who  wrote  this 
epistle,  salute  you  in  the  Lord."  Then  comes  Gains, 
Paul's  host,  and  asks  to  be  remembered,  and  Erastus, 
the  treasurer  of  the  city,  and  finally  a  modest  man 
comes  up  and  whispers  to  Tertius,  who  calls  himself 
simply  Quartus,  the  brother,  and  says,  "Send  my  love 
too." 

Now  is  not  that  beautiful?  I  have  sometimes  won- 
dered who  Q'uartus  was,  who  comes  last  in  the  list 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF      55 

and  simply  calls  himself  brother.  He  might  have  been 
the  mayor,  or  the  town  clerk,  or  the  chief  of  police, 
or  the  recorder  of  deeds,  or  the  sexton  of  the  church, 
or  the  valet  of  some  wealthy  Greek,  but  whatever 
else  he  was  he  was  "the  brother."  That  was  the 
wonder-working  word  after  all,  a  word  capable  of 
putting  out  all  the  Roman  campfires  and  overthrowing 
all  the  tyrannies  of  the  world.  Quartus  the  brother 
in  sending  his  little  message  of  greeting  and  love  was 
thus  sending  a  little  thread  of  fine  gold,  spun  in  heaven, 
across  from  Corinth  to  Rome  to  aid  in  sewing  together 
the  gaping  wound  of  racial  hate  and  antiquity. 

Now,  in  conclusion,  I  wish  to  draw  two  or  three 
brief  lessons. 

(i)  First  a  lesson  of  gratitude,  second  a  lesson  of 
hope,  and  third  a  lesson  of  responsibility. 

A  lesson  of  gratitude  to  those  of  the  past  who 
adopted  Paul's  principles  in  their  lives  and  from  whose 
lives  we  have  reaped.  "No  one  liveth  to  himself." 
I  think  of  the  influence  that  made  me,  of  the  father 
and  mother  who  cared  for  me,  who  taught  me  to  pray, 
who  encouraged  me  to  do  right,  who  yearned  over  me 
when  I  went  astray,  and  who  left  me  the  heritage  of 
a  good  name  and  clean  blood,  and  faith  in  God.  I 
think  of  the  friends  who  have  inspired  me  to  the  high- 
est things ;  the  teachers  who  have  lifted  the  veil  and 
showed  me  the  vision  of  life ;  of  the  pastors  who  have 
stood  before  me  and  pointed  my  life  and  speech  to 
the  gates  of  the  eternal  city.  I  think  of  Christian 
civilization  and  all  it  has  meant  to  be  born  here  rather 
than  beneath  some  other  sky.  I  think  of  the  thou- 
sands of  blessed  influences,  I  say,  which  have  meant 
to  me  all  that  is  truest  and  deepest  in  life,  influences 
proceeding   from  lives   which  were   lived  on   Paul's 


56  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

principles;  "No  man  liveth  unto  himself  and  none 
dieth  to  himself;  For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto 
the  Lord;  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord: 
whether  we  live,  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's," 
and  my  heart  is  stirred  within  me  to  the  deepest  grati- 
tude to  God  for  those  who  grasped  Paul's  ideal  and 
caught  the  vision. 

(2)  And  the  second  lesson  I  get  is  a  lesson  of  re- 
sponsibility. No  man  can  live  in  the  modern  world 
without  feeling  keenly  the  pressure  and  urgency  of 
this  principle  in  our  lives.  We  have  seen  how  it  is 
in  the  very  constitution  of  society.  We  cannot  escape 
its  action  if  we  would.  A  man  may  try  to  be  a  cos- 
mopolitan in  his  business  enterprise  and  a  Robinson 
Crusoe  in  his  sympathies.  But  it  is  impossible  to  do 
so  without  paying  a  heavy  penalty.  A  man  might  as 
well  vote  that  he  would  henceforth  refuse  to  submit 
to  the  law  of  gravitation  and  walk  off  into  space  from 
the  roof  of  a  tall  building  in  the  hope  of  escaping 
the  consequences  of  his  folly,  as  to  attempt  to  wall 
himself  in  from  his  fellows  in  his  sympathies  and  his 
outlook  upon  life.  There  is  a  law  of  moral  gravita- 
tion which  clutches  us  tenaciously  and  subjects  us  to 
itself,  and  it  says :  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself,"  and  "All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  also  unto  them." 

(3)  I  learn  also  a  lesson  of  hope.  The  moral  law 
to  which  I  have  just  referred  may  all  be  summed  up 
in  one  word.  It  is  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
is  coming,  surely  coming  over  the  earth.  Men  are 
slowly  learning  Christ's  valuation  of  humanity  and  the 
law  of  interdependence.  Humanity,  made  in  the  image 
of  God,  is  sacred  in  all  its  manifestation.  The  ser- 
vants in  our  homes  bear  the  stamp  of  the  divine  image 


NO  MAN  LIVETH  TO  HIMSELF     57 

and  we  are  learning  to  treat  them  with  consideration 
and  kindness.  The  negro  who  was  once  our  slave, 
we  are  slowly  learning,  though  far  too  slowly  learning, 
to  regard  as  Quartus,  the  brother,  hence  the  schools 
and  plans  for  their  education.  We  are  learning  too 
slowly,  indeed,  but  learning  that  we  have  no  right 
to  exploit  our  fellowmen  for  mere  gain,  and  that  we 
must  recognize  in  each  and  all  the  image  of  God, 
and  in  our  legislation  provide  for  the  protection  of 
eyesight  and  health.  A  deep  and  widespread  feeling 
of  indignation  that  disease  has  so  long  ravaged  man- 
kind prevails.  Hence,  organizations  to  stamp  out 
tuberculosis,  and  institutes  to  discover  remedies  for 
diseases  of  children,  a  foregleam  of  the  state  of  things 
"when  there  shall  be  no  more  pain."  Christian  people 
of  every  name  think  of  the  heathen  nations,  "the 
low-born,  sullen  peoples,  half  demon  and  half  child," 
as  also  bearing  the  stamp  of  the  divine  image,  and 
calling  out  for  help ;  hence  the  missionary  enterprise. 
Thus  if  we  gaze  upward  we  may  faintly,  very  faintly 
discern,  far,  far  away,  the  outlines  of  the  city  of  God, 
which  is  coming  down  from  heaven  to  earth  with 
gates  of  pearl  and  streets  of  gold.  If  we  would  hasten 
its  coming  we  need  only  make  vital  and  effective  in 
our  lives  Paul's  words : 

"For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  none  dieth 
to  himself.  For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the 
Lord,  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord: 
whether  we  live,  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's." 


VI 

AN  ANCIENT  RECIPE  FOR  A  HAPPY  LIFE 

I  Peter  3 :  10-12 — "For  he  that  would  love  life, 
mid  see  good  days,  let  him  refrain  his  tongue  from 
evil,  and  his  lips  that  he  speak  no  guile:  And  let  him 
turn  away  from  evil  and  do  good;  let  him  seek  peace, 
and  pursue  it,  for  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  upon  the 
righteous,  and  his  ears  unto  their  supplication:  hut  the 
face  of  the  Lord  is  upon  them  that  do  evil." 

I  HAVE  called  this  an  ancient  recipe  for  a  happy 
life.  It  is  an  Old  Testament  teaching  reproduced 
in  a  New  Testament  setting.  Its  meaning  is 
greatly  enlarged  and  enhanced  by  the  light  shed  upon 
it  through  the  revelation  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  Old 
Testament  in  all  its  parts  is  best  understood  through 
the  teachings  of  the  New.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
teachings  in  the  Old  Testament  are  like  writing  in 
invisible  ink.  The  teachings  of  the  New  may  be  com- 
pared to  the  acid  which  is  put  upon  the  ink  to  bring 
the  writing  into  clearness.  Perhaps  an  even  better 
illustration  is  that  the  Old  Testament  teaching  is  like 
the  trickling  stream  of  water  flowing  at  the  bottom 
of  the  deep  banks  of  a  tidal  river.  The  river  flows 
down  to  the  sea.  Ordinarily,  its  channel  is  but  par- 
tially filled  with  water,  but  when  the  tide  rolls  in 
from  the  sea  the  channel  is  filled  and  the  river  over- 
flows its  banks.  The  gospel  as  revealed  to  us  in  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  great  tide  of  divine  truth  flowing  back 

58 


A  HAPPY  LIFE  59 

into  the  channels  of  Old  Testament  teaching  and  fill- 
ing them  to  the  brim  with  meaning  and  power. 

The  text  which  I  have  read  contains  the  elements 
of  a  happy  life.  It  might  be  called,  indeed,  the  alphabet 
of  the  Christian  life,  but  its  truths  are  stated  so  simply 
and  so  clearly  that  we  may  properly  call  it  an  ancient 
recipe  for  a  happy  life. 

Let  us  note  now  some  of  the  elements  that  enter 
into  this  happy  life.  Observe  first  the  form  of  state- 
ment, "he  that  would  love  life."  Mark  you,  it  does 
not  say  "he  that  seeks  prosperity,  or  he  that  would 
avoid  adversity."  The  text  does  not  mean  bright 
days  or  dark  days,  sunshine  or  shadow.  The  text 
does  not  mean  mere  existence.  It  does  not  mean  pov- 
erty or  wealth,  sickness  or  health.  It  means  something 
deeper,  richer,  and  fuller — life  itself.  "He  that  would 
love  life,"  that  rich,  full,  divine  thing  which  comes 
out  of  God  Himself,  may  find  it  if  he  will. 

Observe  again  the  next  clause  in  the  description,  he 
that  would  see  "good  days,"  We  are  all  familiar 
with  good  days  and  bad  days  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word.  The  business  man  returns  home  at  night 
and  says,  "This  has  been  a  good  day.  Business  was 
brisk.  Many  new  orders  were  received ;  some  old  bills 
were  paid;  everything  went  right."  At  another  time 
he  says,  "This  has  been  a  bad  day;  things  went  all 
wrong."  So  also  the  housekeeper  has  her  good  days 
and  her  bad  days.  Days  are  like  oranges.  We  say 
of  a  good  orange  that  it  is  large  and  that  it  is  juicy, 
and  that  it  is  sweet  and  that  it  is  tender.  The  orange 
with  these  qualities  has  all  the  good  points  of  an 
orange.  If  an  orange  is  little  and  sour  and  dry  and 
tough,  it  possesses  none  of  the  qualities  of  a  good 
orange. 


60  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

Now  the  text  says  that  our  days  may  be  Uke  the 
good  orange,  that  all  our  days  may  have  the  good 
points.  If  we  have  the  Christian  aim  and  the  Christian 
spirit  and  the  Christian  faith  and  the  Christian  obedi- 
ence, our  days  will  all  of  them  be  good  days. 

Now,  mark  you  that  good  days  are  not  to  be  meas- 
ured by  their  outward  appearance.  Riches  do  not 
necessarily  make  good  days,  neither  does  position  or 
power.  It  is  related  that  at  one  time  the  Czar  of 
Russia  was  afraid  for  his  life  and  had  reduced  his 
diet  to  the  one  item  of  eggs,  and  these  were  served 
in  the  shell  in  order  to  prevent  poison.  Bye  and  bye, 
he  discovered  that  poison  could  be  injected  through 
the  shell,  and  then  his  happiness  faded  away.  Death 
lurked  even  on  the  dinner  plate.  Position  and  power 
may  be  coupled  with  a  heavy  heart.  As  the  poet  has 
said: 

"  'Tis  better  to  be  lowly  born, 
And  dwell  with  humble  livers  in  content. 
Than  to  be  perched  upon  a  glistening  grief 
And  wear  a  golden  sorrow." 

Indeed,  it  is  true  that  many  a  throne  is  a  glistening 
grief  and  many  a  crown  is  a  golden  sorrow,  and  Robert 
Burns  was  correct  in  the  lines  which  he  has  left: 

"  'Tis  no  in  titles  nor  In  rank ; 
'Tis  no  in  wealth  like  London  bank, 
To  purchase  peace  and  rest, 
If  happiness  hae  not  her  seat  and  centre  in  the 

breast. 
We  may  be  rich,  or  wise,  or  great. 
But  never  can  be  blest." 


A  HAPPY  LIFE  61 

Now  let  us  take  up  in  detail  the  list  of  requirements 
for  a  happy  life.  The  first  is  expressed  in  the  clause, 
"let  him  refrain  his  tongue  from  evil."  Literally,  we 
may  say,  "let  him  break  back  his  tongue  from  evil; 
let  him  deal  vigorously  with  his  tongue."  The  tongue, 
though  a  little  member,  boasteth  great  things.  A  man 
who  can  control  his  tongue  is  a  man  of  power.  The 
tongue  is  mighty  for  good  or  ill.  It  is  related  that 
a  certain  Greek  philosopher  who  expected  a  guest  for 
dinner  told  his  servant  to  provide  a  single  dish  for 
the  meal,  but  it  was  to  be  the  best  dish  the  servant 
could  prepare.  When  the  philosopher  and  his  visitor 
sat  down  to  the  table,  there  was  one  item  in  the  menu, 
namely,  a  dish  of  tongue.  The  servant  explained  that 
tongue  is  the  best  of  all  dishes  because  with  it  we  may 
bless;  with  it  we  may  communicate  happiness.  With 
the  tongue  we  may  dispel  the  clouds  of  sorrow,  remove 
despair,  cheer  the  faint-hearted,  inspire  the  discour- 
aged, and  do  a  hundred  other  things  uplifting  to  men 
and  women.  The  philosopher  was  pleased  and  told 
the  servant  that  the  next  day  he  should  serve  a  single 
dish  which  must  be  the  worst  dish  he  could  provide. 
Again  a  dish  of  tongue  appeared  on  the  table.  The 
servant  explained  that  tongue  was  the  worst  thing  in 
the  world  because  with  it  we  may  curse  and  break 
human  hearts;  we  may  destroy  reputations,  promote 
discord  and  strife,  set  families,  communities,  and  na- 
tions at  war  with  each  other.  And  again  the  philoso- 
pher commended  his  servant  for  wisdom. 

Another  injunction  in  the  text,  closely  akin  to  that 
regarding  the  tongue,  is  found  in  the  words  "and  his 
lips  from  speaking  guile."  Guile  means  deception. 
The  figure  is  that  of  a  baited  hook  to  catch  the  unwary 
and  we  are  urged  to  turn  from  deceptive  speech.    And 


62  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

this  is  one  ingredient  in  the  happy  life,  the  tongue 
which  we  hold  in  subjection.  Our  words,  so  long  as 
we  keep  them  in  our  own  possession,  are  weapons  with 
which  we  may  win  victories,  but  idle  words  and  harm- 
ful words  which  we  wantonly  let  fly  from  our  lips 
may  become  swords  in  the  hands  of  our  enemy  with 
which  he  may  fight  us. 

Observe  that  the  next  ingredient  in  the  happy  life 
is  the  avoidance  of  evil.  In  verse  eleven  we  read, 
"let  him  turn  away  from  evil."  Let  him  swerve  around 
the  evil  thing.  We  have  noticed  boys  in  skating.  The 
prudent  boy  swerves  around  the  thin  place  in  the  ice. 
The  reckless  boy  attempts  to  skate  over  it  and  it  is 
the  reckless  boy  who  comes  to  grief.  Happy  is  the 
young  person  or  the  older  person  who  has  formed 
the  habit  of  swerving  around  evil.  The  forms  of  evil 
in  our  modern  cities  are  so  many  that  it  is  difficult 
for  the  young,  unless  they  are  on  their  guard  con- 
stantly, to  escpoe.  I  once  saw  a  picture  which  repre- 
sented a  bird  hovering  in  the  air  and  beating  its  wings 
as  if  in  a  frantic  effort  to  escape  from  some  great 
danger.  As  I  looked  I  saw  at  first  nothing  to  hinder 
the  escape  of  the  bird,  but  presently  I  noticed  that  a 
snake  lying  coiled  on  the  top  of  a  stone  fence  had 
fixed  its  deadly  gaze  upon  the  bird  and  held  it  under 
its  fascinating  glance.  Underneath  the  picture  were 
the  words,  "The  Sociable  Snake."  The  picture  is  a 
parable.  There  are  many  places  in  our  modern  cities 
full  of  evil  and  with  power  for  evil  over  those  who 
frequent  them.  They  may  be  described  as  sociable 
snakes,  which  charm  them,  fascinate  them,  grip  them 
in  a  deadly  clutch  and  lure  to  destruction.  This  is 
a  vital  element  in  the  happy  life,  to  turn  around,  to 
swerve  away  from  evil. 


A  HAPPY  LIFE  63 

But,  indeed,  the  avoidance  of  evil  is  the  negative 
side  of  a  happy  life.  The  text  then  adds  "and  do 
good."  This  is  the  positive  side.  Negative  goodness 
is  real  goodness,  but  it  is  not  the  highest  kind  of  good- 
ness. It  is  only  when  our  goodness  becomes  positive 
and  active  that  it  possesses  the  highest  qualities.  There 
are  three  kinds  of  trees,  the  thorn  tree,  the  fruit- 
bearing  tree,  and  the  tree  that  has  neither  thorns  nor 
fruit.  The  bad  man  is  like  the  thorn  tree  and  the 
good  man  in  the  sense  of  text  is  the  fruit  tree.  The 
man  who  stands  between  the  two  has  neither  thorns 
nor  fruit,  but  will  soon  begin  to  bear  thorns.  Every 
Christian  needs  a  task.  He  needs  some  positive  under- 
taking to  hold  him  to  his  highest  and  best.  Jesus  said, 
"We  must  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me." 
May  it  be  our  motto  that  we  will  be  workers  in  the 
kingdom  of  God?  Let  us  catch  the  spirit  of  the  little 
poem: 

"Time  worketh ;  let  me  work  too. 
Time  undoeth;  oh,  let  me  do. 
As  busy  as  time,  my  task  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  the  rest  of  eternity. 

"Sin  worketh;  let  me  work  too. 
Sin  undoeth ;  oh,  let  me  do. 
As  busy  as  sin,  my  task  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  the  rest  of  eternity. 

"Death  worketh ;  let  me  work  too. 
Death  undoeth ;  oh,  let  me  do. 
As  busy  as  death,  my  task  I  ply 
Till  I  rest  the  rest  of  eternity." 

Note  again  that  as  an  ingredient  in  the  happy  life 
we  must  "seek  peace  and  pursue  it."    Here  the  word 


64  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

peace  is  no  doubt  a  comprehensive  word.  It  means 
peace  with  God  and  peace  with  men.  Jesus  Christ, 
who  died  for  our  sins,  is  our  peace  with  God.  It  is 
He  through  whom  we  come  to  God.  We  trust  Him 
and  God  accepts  us;  "being  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
This  is  really  the  corner-stone  of  the  happy  life.  No 
life  can  be  fruitful  in  doing  good;  no  life  can  avoid 
evil;  no  life  can  control  the  tongue;  no  life  can  see 
good  days  and  truly  love  life  unless  it  is  a  life  at 
peace  with  God.  If  we  have  peace  with  God,  we 
will  cultivate  peace  with  our  fellow-man.  The  world 
gives  back  the  image  we  present  to  it.  The  peaceful 
man  will  find  peaceful  neighbours.  The  contentious 
man  will  find  contentious  people  around  him.  An 
immigrant  woman  in  a  Western  town  who  stopped  a 
few  hours  in  camp  enquired  of  another  woman  who 
lived  in  the  town  what  kind  of  people  lived  in  the 
next  town  whither  she  was  bound,  whether  they  were 
good  people,  neighbourly  people,  or  cold,  distant,  and 
selfish  people.  In  reply,  the  lady  to  whom  the  ques- 
tion was  addressed  said,  "First  I  will  ask  you  a  ques- 
tion. What  kind  of  people  did  you  leave  where  you 
came  from  ?  Were  they  good,  kind,  neighbourly  folks, 
or  were  they  cold,  distant,  selfish  people?  You  will 
find  the  same  sort  of  people  where  you  go  that  you  left 
behind  you."  In  a  real  sense,  we  carry  our  world 
within  us.  We  make  our  environment.  Strangers 
sometimes  complain  that  churches  are  unresponsive 
and  unsocial  to  visitors.  This  may  be  true  of  some 
churches,  but  it  is  often  true  that  the  visitor  is  looking 
for  slights  and  for  coldness.  Let  him  bring  a  warm 
heart  and  he  will  be  likely  to  find  a  warm  heart. 
The  closing  part  of  my  text   assigns  the   reason 


A  HAPPY  LIFE  65 

why  these  ingredients  make  a  happy  life.  These  are 
the  words,  "because  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  on  the 
righteous  and  his  ears  are  open  to  their  supphcation." 
This  means  that  God  hears  our  prayers.  It  means 
that  He  has  interest  in  our  affairs.  It  means  that  in 
all  our  undertakings  we  may  invoke  His  blessings  and 
count  upon  His  favour.  We  shall  fail  in  our  reali- 
zation of  the  conditions  of  a  happy  life  unless  we  keep 
close  contact  with  God  through  prayer.  Many  are 
discouraged  in  prayer  because  God  sometimes  seems 
not  to  hear.  There  is  but  one  thing  to  do  when  we 
seek  God's  blessing  upon  our  undertakings  and  that  is 
to  continue  our  prayers  until  an  answer  comes.  He 
will  either  give  us  what  we  ask  or  something  better. 
Perseverance  in  prayer  will  save  us  from  the  sense 
of  defeat  and  give  us  a  sense  of  victory. 

Sometimes  in  their  early  stages  our  prayers  labour 
and  seem  to  be  in  vain.  If  we  persevere,  we  win  the 
victory.  I  learned  a  lesson  once  from  a  bird  which 
battled  with  the  storm.  It  was  high  in  the  air.  A 
heavy  gale  was  blowing.  The  bird  spread  its  wings 
and  launched  its  flight  directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind. 
It  was  blown  backward  and  downward,  but,  undis- 
couraged,  it  gathered  itself  together  and  hurled  its 
little  body  against  the  gale  only  to  be  beaten  down 
again  and  again.  I  said  as  I  gazed,  "Little  bird,  you 
are  too  frail  for  the  storm.  You  will  have  to  fly 
in  the  other  direction."  I  was  mistaken ;  presently  the 
bird  taught  me  a  lesson.  Instead  of  flying  against  the 
wind,  it  turned  its  gaze  and  flight  upward  at  an  angle. 
It  proceeded  up  and  up  until  it  was  nearly  beyond 
my  sight,  and  presently  it  faced  in  the  direction  it 
had  been  trying  to  fly  and  sped  forward  swift  as  an 
arrow,  without  encountering  resistance  of  any  kind. 


66  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

The  bird  had  simply  risen  above  the  storm.  It  had 
fought  its  way  through  the  opposing  gale.  It  had 
found  in  an  upper  stratum  of  air  a  place  of  calm 
and  it  sped  forward  on  unhindered  wings.  Even  so 
the  child  of  God  may  rise  to  blessed  heights  of  fellow- 
ship and  communion  through  prayer,  battling  his  way 
through  many  a  storm,  temptation,  and  trial,  but  at 
length  triumphing  over  all  opposition. 

Let  us  adopt  for  our  own  this  ancient  recipe  for  a 
happy  life  and  let  us  make  it  effective  by  our  constant 
prayers  to  the  God  of  love,  who  never  takes  His  eye 
from  His  children. 


VII 

THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD 

Matthew  6:<^—"0iir  Father."  John  14:9—''//^ 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

SOME  one  has  remarked  that  there  are  three 
stages  in  the  growth  of  a  human  soul.  The 
first  when  it  becomes  conscious  of  the  world 
about  it.  The  infant  sees  this  world  as  a  "great  buzz- 
ing, blooming  confusion,"  and  understands  nothing  of 
it.  The  next  stage  is  when  the  soul  becomes  con- 
scious of  itself  as  a  distinct  person  and  individual 
separate  from  others  and  responsible.  The  third  stage 
is  when  it  becomes  conscious  of  God.  I  would  add  a 
fourth  stage  and  that  is  when  the  soul  passes  from 
the  idea  of  God  as  King  and  ruler  up  to  the  idea  of 
God  as  Father.  This  is  the  supreme  moment  in  the 
history  of  any  soul.  Let  us  meditate  for  a  time  upon 
this  great  thought — The  Fatherhood  of  God.  We 
observe : 

(i)  The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  the  supreme  note 
in  the  Revelation  which  Christ  brought  to  the  world. 
What  a  radiant  and  wonderful  picture  of  God's 
Fatherhood  it  is  that  Jesus  discloses.  God  the  Father 
cares  for  every  created  thing.  He  clothes  the  grass 
and  robes  the  lily  of  the  field  in  its  beautiful  garments. 
He  scatters  crumbs  to  the  ravens  and  stretches  out  a 
tender  hand  when  the  sparrow  falls.  He  sends  the 
rain  on  the  evil  and  the  just.     He  forgives  us  and 

67 


68  THE  LIFE  m  CHRIST 

stands  with  open  arms  to  welcome  the  returning  prodi- 
gal. He  whispers  His  secrets  to  the  docile,  childlike 
mind  and  sends  the  self-sufficient  and  worldly-wise 
empty  away.  He  hears  our  prayers  and  gives  us  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

Jesus  Christ  was  the  Revealer  of  the  Father  to  man- 
kind. As  the  lines  in  the  solar  spectrum  tell  us  the 
substances  which  are  in  the  sun  nearly  a  hundred 
million  miles  away,  so  Jesus  Christ  reveals  what  is  in 
the  invisible  God.  One  great  truth  which  stands  out 
in  that  revelation  is  that  there  is  something  human  in 
God,  for  Jesus  became  man.  The  incarnation  pro- 
claims the  kinship  of  God  and  man. 

We  as  His  children  reproduce  His  likeness  and  men 
are  thus  led  to  glorify  Him.  When  we  forgive  our 
enemies  we  are  simply  reflecting  the  beauty  of  His 
forgiving  love.  When  we  are  generous  in  our  gifts 
to  His  cause  we  simply  proclaim  that  our  Father  has 
a  nature  which  loves  to  bestow  blessings,  which  eter- 
nally imparts.  Our  good  works  are  the  reflection  in 
Us  of  His  holy  energy.  Our  lives  are  looms  in  which 
we  weave  holy  character.  God  our  Father  supplies 
the  threads  of  gold  from  His  own  divine  nature.  If 
we  could  but  see  them,  they  are  coming  down  steadily, 
those  threads  which  we  weave  into  the  fabric  of  our 
lives.  The  golden  thread  of  patience,  the  golden 
thread  of  gentleness,  the  golden  thread  of  moral  cour- 
age and  of  love,  coming  to  us  through  His  fingers  and 
reproducing  in  us  His  likeness.  As  the  sunlight  is 
invisible  until  it  has  a  surface  to  reflect  it,  or  an  object 
of  some  kind  to  concentrate  it,  so  God's  Fatherhood 
requires  an  object.  His  own  children.  As  the  meadow 
reflects  the  sunshine,  so  does  His  Fatherhood  shine 
back  from  us.     We  reveal  God's  traits  and  He  illu- 


THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD         69 

mines  and  glorifies  our  lives.  As  the  sunlight  falling 
on  Niagara  Falls  reveals  the  water,  and  as  the  gleam- 
ing, leaping,  and  iridescent  waters  reveal  the  sun- 
shine, so  God's  Fatherhood  reveals  what  we  are  and 
our  sonship  reveals  what  God  is.  All  our  own  higher 
traits,  then,  tell  of  God.  We  know  that  He  loves  the 
beautiful  because  we  love  it  so.  Who  can  gaze  upon 
orchids  and  roses,  or  pearls  and  rubies,  or  evening 
clouds  and  midnight  skies,  and  doubt  that  He  loves 
the  beautiful?  God  the  Father,  contrary  to  the  view 
of  many,  must  have  a  sense  of  humour.  Who  can  look 
at  the  antics  of  monkeys  or  the  pranks  and  original 
ways  of  children  and  doubt  it?  He  must  often  smile 
when  His  earthly  children  under  some  little  flea-bite 
of  loss  or  pain,  sit  down  in  a  corner  with  lugubrious 
countenance  and  act  as  if  God  the  Father  were  dead. 
And  I  think  He  must  often  chuckle  to  Himself  with 
delight  as  He  plans  some  great  and  wondrous  gift 
for  His  loving  child,  by  stealing  into  the  life,  and, 
like  the  great  Santa  Glaus  that  He  is,  hiding  it  where 
you  will  find  it  and  then  slipping  out  again.  Of  course 
He  loves  with  an  everlasting  love.  Christ's  whole 
career,  His  words  and  works,  His  atonement,  His 
resurrection  and  gift  of  the  Spirit,  these  are  the  blaz- 
ing glory  of  His  love  and  grace. 

(2)  The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  the  Master  key  to 
the  problems  of  human  existence.  The  most  convinc- 
ing proof  that  any  great  truth  is  really  true  lies  in 
this,  that  it  includes  in  itself  many  other  truths,  that 
you  can  fit  together  in  a  harmonious  whole  all  the  other 
truths  under  the  larger  truth.  The  majestic  and  bril- 
liant imagery  and  movement  in  Homer's  Iliad  seem 
confusing  and  misleading  until  the  key  is  found  in 
the  effort  of  the  Greeks  to  recapture  Helen  from  the 


70  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Trojans,     The  movements  of  the  parts  of  a  great 
army  seem  meaningless  until  the  plan  of  the  general 
becomes  clear.    So  the  world  is  full  of  confusion  and 
contradiction  until  the  key  to  its  mysteries  is  found. 
Even  to-day  there  are  many  jangling  voices  among 
scientists  and  philosophers  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
world.     One  speaks  of  a  great  first  cause  and  stops 
there.    Another  asserts  that  matter  and  force  are  the 
final  facts  of  the  universe.     Matthew  Arnold  would 
only  dare  to  assert  that  it  is  a  "power  not  ourselves 
that  makes  for  righteousness."    None  of  these  things 
kindle  our  enthusiasm  when  viewed  alone.     It  is  only 
as  they  approximate  the  idea  of  Fatherhood  that  they 
have  power.    The  idea  of  a  first  great  cause  leaves  you 
cold.     The  idea  of  an  intelligent  first  cause  kindles 
a  Httle  blaze  and  attracts  your  attention.     When  this 
cause  is  represented  as  having  a  purpose  which  runs 
through  all  history,  then  it  leaps  into  a  little  flame 
at  which  you  warm  your  hands.    When  it  is  asserted 
that  this  cause  with  a  purpose  running  through  history 
takes  account  of  individuals,  counts  and  names  the 
stars  in  the  sky,  and  counts  and  names  the  hairs  of 
our  heads,  then  it  becomes  an  intense  blaze  of  heat 
and  power.    When  finally  this  great  purposeful  indi- 
vidualizing cause  is  described  as  Father,  then  it  sets 
all  the  joybells  of  the  heart  to  ringing  and  becomes 
a  sun  to  illuminate  and  warm  and  irradiate  all  of  life. 
Now  the  great  thing  Jesus  did  was  to  make  the  idea 
of  God  the  Father  real.     As  a  bird  cannot  fly  in  a 
vacuum,  so  the  soul  cannot  subsist  on  an  abstract  con- 
ception of  God.    Jesus  took  the  idea  of  causation  and 
of  intelligence  and  of  force  and  the  other  fragments 
which  men  had  found  and  mixed  them  as  a  painter 
mixes  colours  and  added  His  own  radiant  and  gracious 


THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD         71 

doctrine  of  Fatherhood  like  a  colour  snatched  from  the 
milky  way.  With  these  colours  He  portrayed  a  new 
likeness  of  God  instead  of  the  old  dim  representation. 
He  put  warmth  into  the  face,  and  love  into  the  eyes. 
He  made  the  face  radiant  with  Fatherhood. 

Now  when  this  view  of  the  divine  Being  was  made 
current  in  men's  thoughts,  they  ceased  to  speculate 
and  went  to  work.  They  ceased  to  ask  whence  come 
we  and  whither  go  we?  Is  man  immortal,  or  does 
he  perish  like  the  beasts  of  the  field?  They  knew 
that  God's  child  cannot  perish  because  God  cannot 
perish.  The  mystery  of  the  first  cause  and  the  final 
cause  was  solved.  Christ  took  the  half  truths  and 
the  false  views  of  men  and  put  them  together  in  one 
harmonious  whole.  These  were  like  the  parts  of 
some  great  power  plant,  some  mighty  engine,  which 
had  been  shipped  in  separate  pieces  and  were  lying 
there  waiting  for  the  Master  Machinist  to  put  them 
together.  Jesus  was  that  Master,  and  Fatherhood  was 
the  one  great  comprehensive  idea  which  included  all 
the  parts.  With  it  He  set  in  motion  the  moral  ma- 
chinery of  the  world.     This  leads  to  my  next  point. 

(3)  I  remark  next  that  Christ's  teaching  of  Father- 
hood is  the  Master  key  not  only  to  man's  intellectual 
but  to  his  moral  difficulties.  How  to  become  good 
one's  self,  how  to  make  men  good,  that  has  always 
been  the  supreme  task.  Various  ways  have  been  sug- 
gested. One  says  make  men  good  by  making  them 
comfortable.  Give  them  good  food  and  clothing  and 
good  houses.  Save  them  by  mutton  chops  and  Brussels 
carpets.  We  know  this  alone  fails.  Another  says 
make  men  good  by  legislation.  But  legislation  never 
made  anybody  good.  It  only  restrains  evil.  It  limits 
vice  and  sin,  but  does  not  transform  the  vicious  or 


72  THE  LIFE  EST  CHRIST 

regenerate  the  sinner.  Legislation  can  put  the  cobra 
in  a  cage  of  glass,  but  it  cannot  extract  its  poison, 
and  it  will  still  strike  at  you  behind  the  glass.  Drawing 
the  tiger's  teeth  does  not  take  away  its  thirst  for 
blood. 

There  is  but  one  way  to  become  good  or  to  make 
others  good  and  that  is  to  give  them  a  sense  of  God's 
Fatherhood  through  faith  in  Christ.  Human  nature 
requires  the  highest  incentives  because  it  is  so  high 
in  capabilities.  Eternal  forces  must  play  on  man  to 
make  him  good.  To  a  man  like  Haeckel,  human  nature 
is  a  poor,  mean  thing,  but  not  to  those  who  under- 
stand it  and  the  forces  which  make  it.  Human  expe- 
rience has  taught  us  that  nothing  less  than  the  im- 
perial and  matchless  conception  of  God's  Fatherhood 
avails  to  lift  man  to  the  highest  moral  heights. 

See  what  it  does  for  man.  It  cures  him  of  care. 
"In  nothing  be  anxious,  but  in  everything  by  prayer 
and  supplication  make  known  your  requests  unto 
God,"  is  the  recipe  for  care  based  on  Fatherhood. 
One  has  analyzed  it  thus:  (i)  The  bane  of  Hfe  is 
care,  "In  nothing  be  anxious."  (2)  The  cure  of  care 
is  prayer,  "But  in  everything  by  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation make  your  requests  known."  (3)  The  crown 
of  prayer  is  peace,  "And  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth 
all  understanding  shall  sentinel  your  minds  and  hearts 
in  Christ  Jesus." 

God's  Fatherhood  illuminates  suffering.  Who  has 
not  been  bafifled  by  the  mystery  of  suffering  and  longed 
to  relieve  it?  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  age-long 
agony  of  the  saints?  Fatherhood  gives  the  only  an- 
swer, "For  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  the  present 
time  are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory 
which  shall  be  revealed  to  usward.     For  the  earnest 


THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD        73 

expectation  of  the  creation  waiteth  for  the  reveaHng 
of  the  sons  of  God  ...  in  hope  that  the  creation 
itself  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corrup- 
tion into  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God." — 
Rom.  8:  i8. 

God  perfects  His  children  through  suffering.  They 
are  as 

"Iron  dug  from  central  gloom 

And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears 
And  dipped  in  baths  of  hissing  tears 

And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use." 

God  loves  us  too  much  to  be  content  with  anything 
but  our  best  moral  and  spiritual  development.  Suffer- 
ing is  His  method  of  bringing  out  the  hidden  beauties 
of  our  souls. 

Fatherhood  enlarges  desire  and  expands  the  spirit 
of  man.  It  puts  wings  on  the  spirit  and  enables  it 
to  soar.  Listen  to  the  prayer  which  God's  Fatherhood 
kindled  in  the  soul  of  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles in  Ephesians,  Chapter  three,  beginning  at  verse  14, 
and  you  are  impressed  with  the  expansiveness  of  soul 
which  the  sense  of  God's  Fatherhood  produces. 

God's  Fatherhood  glorifies  work.  Work  has  been 
regarded  as  a  curse.  Men  connect  it  with  the  first 
sin  and  the  expulsion  from  Eden.  Jesus  took  away 
the  stigma  from  work  by  showing  that  work  is  just 
the  imitation  of  God.  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto, 
and  I  work,"  said  Jesus.  Work  is  the  law  of  the 
child's  existence  because  it  is  the  law  of  the  Father's 
existence.  All  nature  manifests  that  energy  of  God. 
The  restless  tides  of  the  sea.  the  ceaseless  movements 


74  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  the  atmosphere,  the  mighty  swing  of  the  planets, 
the  wheeling  stars  and  suns.  All  these  are  parts  of 
His  workshop  where  in  tireless  and  sleepless  energy 
He  plans  and  labours  for  His  creatures.  In  human 
history  He  works,  enabling  His  children  to  achieve 
moral  progress.  Each  generation  takes  up  the  task 
where  its  predecessor  left  it  off,  and  carries  it  a  step 
nearer  towards  the  one  far  off  divine  event  to  which 
the  whole  creation  moves.  Work,  then,  is  the  free  and 
glad  imitation  of  God  our  Father. 

The  Fatherhood  of  God  is,  of  course,  the  key  to 
prayer  and  makes  clear  its  possibility.  Men  talk  of 
the  mechanism  of  nature  as  excluding  the  idea  of 
prayer.  But  men  forget  that  there  is  a  higher  as  well 
as  a  lower  mechanism.  One  is  the  mechanism  of  the 
machine,  the  other  that  of  the  family.  Any  beautiful 
result  comes  if  the  adjustments  of  the  forces  of  nature 
are  properly  made.  The  adjustment  of  the  sun  to  one 
kind  of  seed  gives  me  the  climbing  vine  and  beautiful 
pink  blossom  I  see  through  my  window.  In  like  man- 
ner the  proper  adjustment  of  man,  the  child,  to  God, 
the  Father,  gives  all  the  lovely  effects,  among  them 
prayer,  which  arches  the  horizon  of  man  like  a  rain- 
bow of  eternal  hope. 

Thus  God's  Fatherhood  is  the  Master  key  to  life's 
problems  and  progress.  It  includes  all  the  other  truths 
in  itself.  A  recent  writer  says  the  piano  is  the  king 
among  musical  instruments,  because  with  it  you  can 
produce  all  musical  effects.  On  the  piano  the  skilled 
player  can  render  anything  in  music.  He  can  repro- 
duce the  human  voice,  or  the  sounds  of  the  orchestra, 
the  shrill  notes  of  the  piccolo,  the  sustained  notes  of 
the  horns,  the  majestic  accents  of  the  trombones  and 
the  low  growls  of  the  bass  instruments,  any  sound  from 


THE  FATHERHOOD   OF  GOD         75 

the  gentlest  pianissimo  to  the  most  beautiful  forte, 
and  any  emotion  from  the  deepest  melancholy  to 
the  highest  notes  of  triumph.  "He  who  com- 
mends the  row  of  white  and  black  keys  is  ruler  of 
the  spirits  of  music.  He  has  all  that  music  can  give 
within  the  grasp  of  his  two  hands,  under  his  ten 
fingers." 

Now  that  is  a  parable.  Among  revealed  truths 
God's  Fatherhood  is  the  King  truth,  and  he  who  has 
learned  its  full  meaning  has  at  his  command  all  moral 
harmony,  all  spiritual  music.  Under  its  action  he 
unfolds  into  all  moral  and  spiritual  beauty,  he  repro- 
duces God's  image  in  a  human  life. 

Sidney  Lanier  has  written  a  sonnet  in  German  ad- 
dressed to  Frau  Nannette  Falck-Auerbach,  the  mu- 
sician. As  Nannette  plays  Beethoven's  music  on  the 
piano  the  great  composer's  spirit  is  drawn  from  heaven 
by  the  wondrous  power  of  the  player  and  the  poet  sees 
Beethoven  by  her  side  and  hears  him  saying,  "Thou 
art  my  child.  I  had  no  child  while  on  earth.  Now 
God  has  given  thee  to  me,  thou,  my  child  in  music, 
my  second  life."  Thus  do  we  reproduce  the  works 
of  our  Father,  thus  does  our  Father  come  into  our 
life.  Thus  do  men  see  our  good  works  and  glorify 
Him. 

We  consider  briefly  now  how  we  are  to  realize 
Fatherhood.  The  theory  of  Fatherhood  is  of  no  more 
value  than  any  lower  truth.  "A  gold  piece  is  worth 
more  than  a  brass  piece,  but  an  imitation  gold  piece 
is  worth  no  more  than  an  imitation  brass  piece." 
Handel's  "Messiah"  is  more  inspiring  than  a  piece  of 
rag-time  music ;  but  the  mere  notes  of  the  one  printed 
on  a  page  has  no  more  power  than  the  other.  "The 
sun  is  warmer  than  an  ice-berg,  but  the  picture  of  the 


76  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

sun  is  no  warmer  than  the  picture  of  an  ice-berg." 
So  Dr.  Parkhurst  expresses  it,  and  he  is  correct. 

Above  all  things  we  need  the  note  of  reality  in  re- 
ligion, and  especially  on  the  great  subject  of  God's 
Fatherhood. 

To  realize  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  make  it  prac- 
tical, two  or  three  things  are  necessary. 

First,  we  accept  God  as  Father  through  the  Revela- 
tion of  Him  Christ  gave :  "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father,"  Christ  declared.  He  is  the  efful- 
gence of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  image  of  His 
substance. 

Is  God  the  Father  of  all  men?  In  reply  I  would  say 
that  the  Fatherhood  and  sonship  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment express  a  high  and  spiritual  relationship.  God 
indeed  is  paternal  in  His  yearning  and  love  for  all. 
He  wishes  that  all  men  might  yield  obedience  to  Him. 
He  created  men  in  His  own  image.  Men  are  consti- 
tuted in  their  spirits  for  sonship.  They  have  capacity 
for  sonship.  But  it  is  a  great  error  to  efface  the  line 
of  distinction  between  the  natural  and  the  spiritual 
here.  First  the  natural,  then  the  spiritual.  God  is 
not  the  spiritual  Father  of  the  pitiless  murderer.  God's 
fatherly  desire  towards  all  does  not  make  the  morally 
vicious  His  true  children.  Sonship  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  mere  potentiality  or  capacity  for  son- 
ship.  To  those  who  received  Christ,  He  gave  the 
authority  to  become  sons  of  God.  Our  free  choice 
of  Him  is  the  most  precious  element  in  our  sonship. 
We  are  all  sons  of  God,  as  Paul  says,  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Let  us  not  confuse  values.  Let  us 
keep  the  coin  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  realm  free 
from  alloy. 

We  can  only  gradually  realize  the  full  meaning  of 


THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD        77 

God's  Fatherhood.  It  is  like  our  realization  of  human 
Motherhood.  Our  own  mothers  are  at  first  no  more 
than  a  little  patch  of  colour,  a  soothing  sound  and  a 
gentle  touch  to  our  infant  eyes  and  ears.  Then  they 
become  distinct  persons  who  love  us,  as  we  see  by 
slow  degrees,  and  if  we  are  loving  and  discerning 
and  reflect  upon  it  much  and  live  a  long  time,  per- 
haps before  we  die  we  get  some  faint  conception  of 
the  wondrous  abysmal  love  and  transcendent  glory 
of  motherhood.  Thus  in  a  far  higher  sense  do  we 
come  to  know  God's  Fatherhood.  It  grows  and  ex- 
pands and  enlarges  to  our  view  as  the  manifold  ex- 
periences of  life  teach  us.  Happy,  thrice  happy  is  he 
who  takes  God's  Fatherhood  as  the  working  principal 
of  his  entire  life  and  makes  it  real  in  conduct.  Miser- 
able, thrice  miserable  is  he  who  casts  away  God's 
Fatherhood  and  his  own  privilege  of  sonship  and  who 
chooses  in  time  and  eternity  to  wander  as  a  waif  and 
an  orphan  through  the  mazes  of  sin  and  selfishness  of 
life  and  destiny. 


VIII 

FREEDOM,  TRUE  AND  FALSE 

John  8:32  and  36 — "Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  .  .  .  "If  the  son  there- 
fore shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  he  free  indeed." 

WE  say  that  Christ  came  to  redeem  men.  He 
also  came  to  redeem  words.  He  put  new 
meaning  into  old  words.  He  evangelized 
them,  so  to  speak.  He  called  them  to  repentance. 
He  gave  them  a  new  heart,  regenerated  them,  justified 
and  adopted  them.  One  of  the  words  which  He 
dealt  with  thus  was  the  word  freedom,  the  Jew 
boasted  of  freedom  because  he  was  descended  from 
Abraham.  The  Roman  because  of  his  citizenship. 
Ordinarily  men  define  liberty  as  freedom  to  pursue 
one's  object  unmolested.  Political  liberty  is  the  right 
to  speak  and  vote  and  exercise  the  rights  of  the  citi- 
zen. Intellectual  liberty  is  freedom  to  think  one's  own 
thoughts  and  express  one's  own  views.  Industrial  and 
commercial  liberty  is  freedom  of  opportunity  in  busi- 
ness. Religious  liberty  is  freedom  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  one's  conscious,  unhin- 
dered by  civil  or  ecclesiastical  authority  of  any  kind. 
Now  Jesus  here  directs  us  to  the  root  of  all  free- 
dom, something  deeper  and  richer  than  any  of  these 
that  I  have  named.  Freedom  based  on  Truth  and 
Freedom  imparted  through  sonship,  "If  the  Son  there- 
fore shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  Indeed." 

78 


FREEDOM,  TRUE  AND   FALSE       79 

Truth  means  adjustment.  Freedom  through  truth 
means  freedom  resulting  from  agreement  between  the 
constitution  of  our  natures  and  the  constitution  of 
the  universe.  Imagine  some  very  potent  being  holding 
in  his  hand  a  little  lump  of  matter.  He  knows  its 
nature  through  and  through.  He  wants  to  relate  it 
in  a  certain  way  to  the  atmosphere  which  he  also  knows 
through  and  through.  We  observe  him  carefully  as 
he  kneads  and  rolls  and  moulds  and  shapes  the  bit  of 
matter  and  slowly  it  is  transformed  into  a  pair  of 
wings  which  he  attaches  to  a  wingless  creature,  en- 
abling it  to  fly.  This  would  be  true  freedom,  con- 
formity of  the  wings  to  the  air.  This  is  a  fancy 
picture,  but  it  is  what  God  does  in  constructing  a 
bird's  wing.  Freedom  through  truth  comes  to  us  in 
the  same  way.  Our  souls  are  conformed  to  the  uni- 
verse of  reality,  and  we  who  were  spiritually  without 
wings  are  enabled  to  fly. 

Freedom  through  sonship  is  acceptance  of  a  relation 
to  God  our  Father.  Behind  the  universe  of  truth  is 
a  Person.  Not  Abraham's  descent,  but  royal  descent 
from  God  makes  us  free. 

Now,  in  order  to  understand  this  freedom  which 
Christ  gives  through  truth  and  by  means  of  sonship, 
we  shall  look  at  certain  aspects  of  the  great  idea  of 
freedom  and  try  to  measure  it  and  show  how  Christ 
gives  ideal  freedom. 

(i)  First,  then,  freedom  is  measured  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  control.  We  may  conceive  of  three  possible 
principles  of  human  action  and  control.  A  man  may 
be  undetermined,  determined  by  circumstances,  or  self- 
determined.  Some  seem  to  live  an  undetermined, 
capricious  life  without  purpose  or  aim.  Some  are  the 
sport  of  circumstances.    They  take  the  colour  of  their 


80  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

surroundings.  They  are  caught  in  the  tides  about 
them  and  carried  whithersoever  it  goes.  The  whole 
issue  lies  here:  Are  you  the  potter  and  the  world 
clay?  Or  is  the  world  potter  and  you  clay?  The 
world  always  assumes  that  you  are  clay  until  you 
prove  to  it  that  you  are  potter.  Now,  to  submit  to 
the  world  in  hopelessness  and  despair  is  slavery.  To 
arise  and  assert  yourself  against  it  is  rebellion,  but 
not  necessarily  deliverance.  To  accept  freedom 
through  truth  and  sonship  is  to  conquer  the  world. 
There  is  lodged  in  the  soul  a  new  energy  to  conquer 
sin,  and  grief,  and  loss,  and  pain,  and  hereditary  bias, 
to  conquer  circumstances  and  to  overcome  the  dead 
weight  of  this  round  planet.  Some  men  are  deter- 
mined by  circumstances.  Others  are  self-determined. 
Christ  gives  self-determination.  God  matches  man- 
hood against  matter,  will  against  force.  He  launches 
human  personality  against  earthquake  and  blizzards, 
famines  and  disease,  and  death  and  sin,  against  the 
whole  weight  and  mass  and  power  of  the  vast  and 
towering  threatening  pitiless  and  grinding  universe. 

(2)  Freedom  is  measured  by  the  motive  which 
directs.  You  can  fix  a  man's  place  in  the  scale  of 
being  by  the  elevation  or  depression  of  his  motive. 
Freedom  is  always  born  of  a  high  motive.  A  man 
whose  life  is  governed  by  a  low  motive,  by  resentment 
or  revenge  or  avarice  and  greed,  locks  himself  in  a 
dungeon,  and  shuts  out  the  universe  of  free  and 
abounding  life. 

Now  Christ  gives  freedom  by  elevating  the  motive. 
You  may  pursue  the  same  object  with  a  new  motive 
and  all  the  world  is  made  anew  for  you.  A  friend 
of  mine  was  telling  me  of  a  deer  hunt  he  had  recently 
had.    I  asked  if  he  got  any  deer.    "Yes,"  he  replied, 


FREEDOM,   TRUE  AND  FALSE       81 

"I  got  two.  I  will  show  them  to  you."  He  brought 
me  a  pencil  sketch  of  two  beautiful  deer,  saying, 
"Here  they  are."  Then  he  told  me  how,  rifle  in  hand, 
he  came  upon  these  beautiful  creatures.  He  saw  them 
through  an  opening  in  the  underbrush,  by  a  lakeside, 
and  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to  lay  down  his  gun 
and  sketch  them.  He  was  an  artist.  The  freedom 
of  the  huntsman  gave  place  to  the  freedom  of  the 
artist.  Freedom  for  him  did  not  mean  deer  to  shoot, 
but  deer  to  look  at,  admire  and  sketch.  He  did  not 
shoot  the  deer.  The  pictures  satisfied  him.  Peace 
hath  her  victories  no  less  renowned  than  war. 

The  love  of  occupation  is  inborn.  This  explains 
the  destructive  habits  of  the  baby.  Give  him  a  pair 
of  scissors,  an  ink  bottle,  and  a  hammer — and  free- 
dom, and  it  requires  no  gift  of  prophecy  to  enable 
you  to  foretell  what  the  house  will  look  like  when 
he  has  rounded  out  his  morning's  labours.  But  take 
away  the  instruments  of  destruction  and  teach  him 
rather  the  motive  of  construction,  and  you  start  him 
on  a  new  career.  He  will  paint  pictures  or  build 
houses  as  readily  as  he  will  do  other  things.  Now, 
human  history  for  two  thousand  years  has  been 
Christ's  effort  to  teach  men  the  constructive  motive 
and  to  put  aside  the  destructive.  He  has  been  trying 
by  spiritual  influences  to  wrest  from  their  hands  the 
divisive  scissors  of  national  and  racial  exclusiveness 
and  hate,  and  the  ink  bottle  of  greed  and  lust,  and  to 
take  away  from  them  the  hammer  of  war  and  replace 
these  by  the  implements  of  peace,  the  pen,  the  plough- 
share, the  pruning-knife,  the  painter's  brush,  the  print- 
ing-press and  the  pulpit.  Just  in  proportion  as  men 
have  learned  the  lesson  have  they  become  free. 

The  instinct  for  conquest  is  one  of  the  noblest  we 


82  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

have,  if  directed  aright.  There  are  two  kinds  of  war. 
One  is  waged  to  gain  territory  by  slaying  men,  the 
other  to  save  human  souls  by  slaying  the  spiritual  foes 
of  the  race.  One  motive  creates  a  Nero  on  the  throne 
who  pitilessly  murders  men  by  the  thousand,  and  the 
other  an  apostle  Paul  in  a  dungeon  under  his  throne 
who  would  give  his  life  to  redeem  the  lowliest  of  his 
fellowmen.  One  motive  for  war  produces  a  Napoleon 
whose  heart  was  stone,  the  other  a  John  Knox,  who 
in  unselfish  longing  prayed  to  God,  "Give  me  Scotland 
or  I  die."  One  war-impulse  leads  a  man  to  follow 
the  cannon,  the  drum  and  the  battleship;  the  other 
to  join  the  army  of  the  Rider  on  the  white  horse 
in  the  book  of  Revelation,  who  goes  forth  with 
a  single  crown  and  returns  as  victor  with  all  the 
crowns  of  earth  upon  his  brow.  Spiritual  conquest 
gratifies  man's  inborn  love  of  victory  beyond  all 
others. 

Freedom  really  comes  only  when  the  spirit  of  man 
finds  its  true  object  and  is  impelled  by  the  higher 
motive.  One  man  seems  to  find  his  object  when  he 
sits  astride  a  splendid  thoroughbred  horse;  another 
when  aboard  a  well-equipped  yacht,  sailing  across  the 
sea;  another  when  in  his  greenhouse,  surrounded  by 
flowers.  But  none  finds  his  soul's  true  object  like 
the  man  who  finds  Christ.  None  have  such  spon- 
taneity of  action,  such  untrammelled  energy  and 
buoyancy  as  men  who  have  acquired  the  freedom  that 
Christ  the  Son  gives.  Look  at  Paul.  He  abounds 
in  images  which  suggest  spontaneity  and  exuberant 
joy.  See  him  yonder,  when  like  a  mighty  swimmer 
rising  above  the  billows  of  adversity  and  difficulty 
he  exclaims,  "I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ." 
Hear  him  as  he  spreads  the  wings  of  devotion,  and  in 


FREEDOM,  TRUE  AND  FALSE       83 

a  splendid  flight  of  mystic  passion  he  shouts,  "For 
me  to  Hve  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain."  Observe  him 
as  he  is  caught  in  the  mighty  grip  of  moral  enthusiasm 
and  self-conquest,  exulting  in  the  joy  of  battle, 
"Thanks  be  to  God,  who  always  leads  me  in  victory 
through  Christ."  See  him  again  as  he  is  impelled  on- 
ward, the  embodiment  of  flaming  love  and  quenchless 
hope  and  deathless  ambition,  running  the  Christian 
race  as  one  who  treads  on  air  and  exclaiming,  "For- 
getting the  things  that  are  behind,  I  press  towards  the 
mark." 

The  moral  career  of  Paul  reminds  one  of  the  flight 
of  some  mighty  eagle,  long  confined  in  a  cage,  and 
then  released.  As  first  he  is  uncertain  of  his  new  feel- 
ing of  freedom,  but  at  length  becoming  conscious  of 
it,  the  heavy  eyelids  open,  he  looks  about  him,  his 
drooping  wings  he  gathers  for  flight,  and  then  with 
a  scream  of  joy,  he  soars  away  to  the  clouds.  His 
eagle  soul  has  found  its  object,  God's  free  air.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  soul.  In  Him  the 
soul  finds  its  true  object  and  freedom.  Men  become 
the  slaves  of  Christ  because  He  makes  them  autono- 
mous, sets  them  free. 

(3)  Freedom  is  measured  by  the  scale  of  develop- 
ment. A  recent  writer  says  we  are  all  dwarfs  because 
only  a  small  portion  of  our  brain  area  is  developed. 
We  might  become  tenfold  greater  and  wiser  if  we 
could  develop  all  our  resources.  It  would  seem  absurd 
to  speak  of  a  jelly-fish  flying  through  the  air  and 
discerning  distant  objects  on  the  horizon.  And  yet  the 
living  cells  in  a  jelly-fish  are  like  the  living  cells  of  the 
eagle.  The  eagle,  then,  is  just  a  highly  developed 
jelly-fish.  Men  often  remain  jelly-fishes  when  they 
might  become  eagles  of  power. 


84  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

We  need  all  round  development  and  not  merely  that 
everybody  become  a  specialist.  The  expert  or  special- 
ist is  useful,  but  not  the  most  useful  member  of  so- 
ciety. It  is  true  the  mocking-bird  is  a  specialist  in 
nature,  and  so  is  the  nightingale  and  the  lark.  But 
so  also  are  the  tiger  and  the  hawk.  The  tiger  doubt- 
less is  a  connoisseur  in  detecting  the  delicate  shades 
of  flavour  in  the  blood  of  his  various  victims.  But 
he  is  a  most  inconvenient  and  unsocial  member  of 
society,  especially  w^hen  you  meet  him  alone  and  he 
is  hungry.  Any  good  dog  is  a  cultivated  and  accom- 
plished gentleman  in  comparison  with  him,  because  he 
has  moved  in  good  society  and  has  an  all  round  de- 
velopment. What  a  charming  companion  a  good  dog 
is.  He  can  talk  and  laugh  and  play  with  you  as  well 
as  sorrow  and  suffer. 

Now  the  human  soul  is  endless  in  its  capacity  for 
growth  and  development.  Niagara  Falls  is  still  going 
to  waste,  says  the  utilitarian  money-maker,  because 
a  very  small  fraction  of  its  power  has  been  applied 
to  machinery.  Between  us,  I  am  glad  of  it,  but  it 
will  serve  as  an  illustration.  Our  natures  are  unused 
Niagaras  of  power  in  large  part. 

We  should  seek  symmetry  of  development.  Reli- 
gion inspires  and  aids  in  this.  Christ  came  to  give 
freedom  through  abundant  life.  Have  a  healthy  body, 
if  possible.  Be  a  good  animal.  That  is  Christian. 
Have  a  well  disciplined  will.  This  is  the  crown  of 
character  and  Christ  enables  us  to  achieve  it.  Develop 
a  sensitive  conscience  and  cultivate  the  intellect.  Art, 
music,  painting,  philosophy,  literature,  these  are  blos- 
soms on  the  tree  of  freedom.  Combine  all  these  with 
a  spiritual  life,  a  practical  useful  life  in  the  church  of 
Christ. 


FREEDOM,  TRUE  AND  FALSE       85 

All  this  is  included  in  freedom.  This  is  what  son- 
ship  means.  Thus  Christ  is  trying  to  bring  out  all 
the  possibilities  in  our  natures.  It  is  said  of  Chopin 
that  he  found  the  soul  of  the  piano  as  no  other  player 
ever  did,  and  gave  it  a  distinct  personality  and  indi- 
viduality, so  to  speak.  He  discovered  all  the  secrets, 
learned  the  hidden  power  in  its  strings,  and  set  free 
all  the  harmonies  of  the  instrument.  After  he  found 
the  soul  of  the  piano  he  used  it  to  find  the  human 
soul.  Thus  Christ  calls  forth  all  our  powers  and 
through  us  reaches  the  world.  He  sets  us  free  and 
through  us  sets  the  world  free. 

(4)  Freedom  is  measured  by  the  size  of  the  world 
in  which  you  move. 

Prof.  Newcomb  says  if  one  would  comprehend  the 
vastness  of  the  physical  universe  he  would  lie  on  his 
back  on  a  bench  or  roof  on  a  clear  moonless  night  in 
autumn.  The  stupendous  arch  of  the  milky  way  will 
curve  above  him.  Nearby  will  be  the  beautiful  con- 
stellation Lyra,  towards  which  our  system  is  moving. 
There  is  the  lovely  blue  star  Vega.  Southward  is 
Altair,  the  bright  star  in  Aquila.  Westward  Arcturus 
glitters,  and  eastward  Aldebaran.  Try  to  grasp  some- 
what the  vast  distances,  the  inconceivable  motion,  the 
ordered  majestic  swing  and  freedom  of  these  match- 
less moving  worlds,  and  indeed,  as  Prof.  Newcomb 
says,  there  seems  "no  other  way  in  which  the  weary 
mind  finds  complete  rest  from  earthly  anxiety  and 
care." 

Now  Christ  the  eternal  Son  teaches  the  soul  to  lie 
on  its  back  and  drink  in  the  vastness  and  wonder  of 
the  spiritual  universe.  He  sets  us  free  to  roam  in  the 
utmost  depths  of  the  infinite.  Eye  hath  not  seen,  ear 
hath  not  heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart 


86  THE   LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  man  the  good  things  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  Him  in  that  vast  universe. 

There  is  the  low  narrow  way  of  interpreting  the 
world,  and  there  is  the  broad  free  way.  You  may 
interpret  the  world  in  terms  of  the  senses,  as  some 
one  has  said,  and  get  a  universe  of  colour ;  red,  black, 
blue,  brown ;  and  of  shape,  round,  square,  long,  short ; 
and  of  tastes,  bitter,  sweet,  sour.  But  that  is  after 
all  a  narrow  universe.  The  soul  beats  its  wings  against 
the  bars  of  sense.  Or  you  can  interpret  the  world 
in  terms  of  intellect  and  get  thought.  For  thought 
is  stamped  all  over  the  universe,  in  the  insect's  eye, 
a  bird's  wing,  and  the  construction  of  the  solar  system. 
Or  you  can  interpret  the  universe  in  terms  of  heart 
and  get  love.  For  love  plays  like  a  dim  flame  even 
over  the  lower  animal  creation  wherein  the  mother 
thrush  gives  her  life  for  her  young,  or  the  lioness  for 
her  whelps.  Or  you  can  interpret  the  universe  in 
terms  of  conscience  and  get  righteousness.  Written 
over  nature  is  a  law  confirming  the  inward  law  of 
right  and  wrong,  teaching  the  deep  lesson: 

"The  air  for  the  wing  of  the  sparrow. 
The  bush  for  the  robin  and  wren, 
But  always  the  path  that  is  narrow 
And  strait  for  the  children  of  men." 

Or  you   can   interpret   the   world    in   terms  of   the 
aesthetic  faculty  and  get  beauty.    For: 

"Nature  beats  in  perfect  tune 
And  round  with  rhyme  her  every  nunc 
Whether  she  work  on  land  or  sea. 
Or  hides  under-ground  her  alchemy. 


FREEDOM,   TRUE  AND  FALSE       87 

Thou  canst  not  wave  thy  staff  In  air, 
Nor  dip  thy  paddle  in  the  lake, 
But  it  carves  the  bow  of  beauty  there. 
And  the  ripples  in  rhymes  the  oar  forsake." 

Or  finally,  you  can  interpret  the  universe  in  terms  of 
religion  and  get  God.  Thus  you  rise  to  the  highest 
view  of  the  world.  Thus  you  find  the  highest  free- 
dom. Under  God's  tutelage,  whose  image  you  bear, 
you  are  taught  on  this  little  planet  and  trained  to  the 
most  daring  flights  and  eternity  alone  will  suffice  to 
give  full  play  for  our  redeemed  powers.  When  you 
get  God  all  the  other  things  come  back  again  In  new 
and  glorified  form,  beauty,  thought,  colour,  shape,  and 
the  rest.    ''Earth  is  crammed  In  heaven." 

The  prayer  life  lifts  you  to  the  stars — fellowship 
with  God  swings  you  out  into  the  infinite  spaces. 
Christian  work  enables  you  to  partake  of  the  rhythm 
and  momentum  and  wondrous  power  of  the  moving 
worlds. 

Before  closing  I  must  briefly  indicate  that  the  free- 
dom which  Christ  gives  through  the  truth  requires 
a  response  on  our  part  or  It  remains  merely  a  name. 
That  response,  after  faith  is  ours,  and  as  a  result  of 
faith,  includes  four  things:  self-discipline,  self-denial, 
self-direction  and  self -development. 

Self-discipline.  Train  yourself  to  think  right,  and 
feel  right  and  act  right  until  the  law  of  right  is  the 
law  of  your  being.  Men  talk  of  the  pleasure  of  self- 
indulgence.  It  is  far  below  the  joy  of  self-restraint. 
The  musician  is  most  free  when  he  has  acquired  such 
skill  In  playing  the  piano  that  he  forgets  that  he  has 
any  fingers. 

Self-denial.  This  Is  the  law  of  the  cross  and  the 


88  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

law  of  Christ.  Self-denial  is  the  law  of  the  universe. 
Self-denial  is  the  law  of  the  planted  seed  which  drops 
its  dead  integument  and  bursts  into  flower.  Self- 
denial  is  the  law  of  proficiency  which  enables  the 
school-boy  to  accomplish  his  tasks  and  carry  off  the 
honours.  Self-denial  creates  the  statesman,  the  soldier 
and  apostle.  Self-denial  is  the  law  of  the  divine  nature 
which  gave  His  Son  for  the  world.  The  way  of  self- 
denial  is  the  way  of  self-realization  and  to  freedom. 

Self-direction.  The  free  man  is  self-directed,  but 
through  an  inward  law.  You  cannot  force  the  human 
will.  God  cannot  force  it.  Freedom  comes  of  the 
will  directing  itself  into  its  own  true  life. 

Self-development.  Stagnation  is  slavery,  not  free- 
dom. Freedom  is  not  movement  in  space  merely,  else 
a  rolling  stone  would  be  free.  Freedom  is  not  action 
only,  but  intelligent  action,  moral  action,  spiritual 
action.  Freedom  is  the  eternal  movement  of  the  soul 
towards  God,  through  God's  redeeming  grace  in  Christ. 


IX 


THE  SUPREME  QUALITY  IN  HUMAN 
ACTIONS 

Matthew  lo :  42 — "In  the  name  of  a  disciple." 
— "In  the  name  of  a  prophet." 

THERE  is  one  meaning  in  these  two  texts.    Each 
text  ifxdicates  that  the  value  of  the  act  Hes 
in  the  motive,  "In  the  name  of  a  prophet," 
*Tn  the  name  of  a  disciple." 

I.  Observe,  first,  the  manner  in  which  character  is 
indicated  by  the  nature  of  the  act. 

(i)  It  is  a  deed  and  not  merely  a  profession  of 
discipleship.  It  is  right  and  proper  to  express  religion 
in  the  form  of  a  creed.  Whoever  thinks  will  desire 
to  define  religion  for  thought,  or  state  its  meaning  and 
contents.  It  is  of  course  right  and  proper  to  express 
religion  in  worship.  Worship  is  natural  and  spon- 
taneous to  the  devout  spirit.  And  yet  in  creed  and 
ritual  the  kernel  of  genuine  religion  may  be  want- 
ing. On  the  stage  an  actor  might  easily  encounter 
and  defeat  a  stage  tiger  amid  the  plaudits  of  the 
spectators.  But  this  would  not  tell  of  his  real  courage, 
or  what  sort  of  behaviour  he  would  exhibit  if  he 
were  to  meet  a  real  tiger  in  a  jungle.  So  religion 
may  be  just  pantomime,  just  stage  acting.  We  may 
bow  before  the  crucifix,  or  sing  of  the  crucifixion, 
or  preach  a  crucified  Christ  purely  as  pantomime, 

89 


90  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

without  having  the  power  of  the  cross  within,  us  at 
all.  That  is'  why  the  scriptures  constantly  call  us 
back  to  the  realities  below  the  surface.  "Pure  reli- 
gion (that  is  the  pure  ritual,  the  real  worship)  is  to 
visit  the  fatherless  and  the  widow."  "Rend  your 
hearts  and  not  your  garments"  was  the  exhortation  of 
an  Old  Testament  prophet.  "What  doth  Jehovah  re- 
quire? Ten  thousand  rams  or  rivers  of  oil?  What 
doth  he  require  of  thee  but  to  'do  justly  and  love 
mercy  and  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?' "  In  the 
scenes  of  heaven  all  is  worship,  and  yet  the  temple 
has  disappeared,  as  pictured  in  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion. There  is  no  temple  needed  for  formal  worship. 
All  has  become  reality. 

(2)  We  have  here  exhibited  a  Christian  motive  and 
not  a  selfish  motive. 

(3)  We  have  deeds  described  best  suited  to  make 
the  motive  clear.  Human  nature  is  likely  enough  to 
engage  in  an  athletic  contest,  or  social  rivalries,  or 
political  struggles  for  the  sake  of  the  applause.  But 
no  one  is  likely  to  give  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  the 
thirsty  for  the  sake  of  a  write-up  in  the  next  morning's 
paper. 

Again  we  see  the  motive  in  receiving  a  prophet  in 
the  name  of  a  prophet.  There  are  two  or  three  pos- 
sible motives  in  receiving  a  prophet.  We  might  receive 
him  because  he  Is  a  blood  relation.  This  would  not 
have  any  especial  spiritual  value.  Or,  we  might  re- 
ceive him  because  he  could  cure  our  disease.  We 
would  thus  be  valuing  him  as  we  would  a  doctor's 
prescription.  Or  we  might  receive  him  because  he 
could  replenish  our  meal  barrel  as  in  the  case  of  the 
widow.  We  would  thus  value  him  as  we  would  so 
much  land  to  produce  meal,  or  so  much  money  to 


THE  SUPREME  QUALITY  91 

buy  it.  But  It  Is  to  receive  a  prophet,  in  the  name  of 
a  prophet,  because  he  is  a  prophet,  that  has  merit. 

(4)  We  have  a  lowly  act  which  includes  the  greater 
acts.  There  is  a  moral  beauty,  and  even  grandeur, 
in  lowly  acts  which  does  not  appear  in  those  of  a 
more  imposing  character.  It  is  a  happy  touch  of  the 
author  of  "Ben  Hur"  where  he  permits  the  curtain 
which  obscures  all  the  early  life  of  Jesus  to  part  for 
a  moment  while  the  young  man  Jesus  at  Nazareth 
steps  forth  silently  to  slake  the  thirst  of  the  Jewish 
captive  whom  the  Romans  are  bearing  away  into  bon- 
dage. The  glimpse  is  imaginary,  not  historical,  but 
somehow  we  feel  it  is  true  to  life  and  harmonizes 
perfectly  with  all  we  know  of  Jesus.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  author  had  painted  the  youth  Jesus  as  per- 
forming some  spectacular  miracle  or  wonder,  we 
should  have  been  shocked. 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  corresponding  value 
does  not  attach  to  greater  deeds  than  giving  the  cup 
of  water  and  showing  hospitality  to  a  prophet.  The 
fact  is  the  Scriptures  reverse  the  mathematical  prin- 
ciple that  the  greater  includes  the  less.  In  moral  and 
spiritual  things  the  less  includes  the  greater.  "He 
that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful  also 
in  much."  "Thou  hast  been  faithful  in  few  things, 
I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things."  The  servant 
who  sweeps  under  the  mats  when  the  mistress  is  out  of 
sight  will  not  be  likely  to  neglect  the  more  important 
duties.  The  theory  that  some  men  will  continue  honest 
so  long  as  they  handle  hundreds  or  thousands  of  other 
people's  money,  but  would  become  dishonest  if  they 
handled  millions,  is  radically  untrue.  No  man  who 
is  honest  at  all  will  steal  in  either  case.  If  it  Is 
really  the  power  of  gravitation  which  causes  the  leaf 


92  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

to  flutter  down  to  the  ground  from  the  twig  of  the 
tree,  it  is  none  the  less  the  power  of  gravitation  which 
hurls  the  boulder  from  the  mountain  side  to  the  valley 
below.  The  mathematician  can  deduce  the  law  of  the 
sphere  if  truly  seen  in  the  dewdrop  as  well  as  in  the 
planet.  Mere  size  is  a  minor  matter  if  the  principle 
is  found.  Thus  ever  in  genuine  life  and  in  real 
character,  the  little  stands  for  the  much.  A  Russian 
exile  on  account  of  his  labours  for  liberty  in  a  land 
of  oppression,  arrives  in  America.  He  goes  to  Mt. 
Vernon  and  picks  up  a  pebble,  and  then  to  George 
Washington's  boyhood  home  in  Virginia  and  cuts  a 
walking  stick  from  the  thicket,  and  these  he  keeps 
as  mementoes  of  the  land  of  freedom  and  of  the  great 
father  of  American  freedom.  In  a  sense  these  things 
are  a  better  sign  of  his  love  of  freedom  than  some 
great  act  might  be.  Being  purely  sentimental  they 
reflect  his  deep  passion  for  liberty  in  a  visible  and 
impressive  way. 

So  also  the  Christian  traveller  goes  to  the  Holy 
Land  and  brings  back  a  souvenir  from  Jacob's  Well 
where  Jesus  sat,  wearied,  and  delivered  his  memorable 
sermon  to  the  woman  on  eternal  life.  He  brings 
back  something  made  of  olive  wood  from  the  spot  in 
the  garden  of  Gethsemane  where  Jesus  endured  the 
agony  and  bloody  sweat,  and  he  cherishes  this  in  the 
true  Christian  spirit. 

We  say  this  is  pure  sentiment.  But  if  genuine,  it 
is  far  more.  It  may  be  the  expression  in  a  small 
way  of  a  great  passion  and  life  devotion  to  Jesus 
Christ.  Behind  these  things  will  lie  a  great  and  high 
appreciation  of  Christ.  Not  Jerusalem  and  Samaria 
alone  will  be  sacred  to  him  because  Christ  was  there, 
but  the  whole  planet  will  be  dear  to  him,  because 


THE  SUPREME  QUALITY  93 

Christ  came  to  it  and  died  for  it  to  redeem  it,  and 
longs  and  yearns  for  its  salvation.  All  humanity  will 
become  sacred  because  Christ  was  a  member  of  the 
race,  and  love  and  missionary  service  will  go  out, 
not  to  the  advanced  peoples  alone,  but  also  to  the 
"lowborn,  sullen  peoples  half  demon  and  half  child." 

II.  Having  noted  the  lowly  act  and  the  character 
manifested  therein,  we  consider  next  some  truths 
which  follow  as  conclusions  therefrom. 

(i)  Note  first  the  unity  of  the  Christian  spirit. 
Giving  water  in  the  name  of  a  disciple  is  to  be  a 
disciple.  Receiving  a  prophet  in  the  name  of  a 
prophet  is  in  essence  the  same  as  being  a  prophet. 
The  woman  of  the  Old  Testament  who  had  a  prophet's 
chamber  in  her  home  for  God's  servant,  was  herself 
prophetic  in  her  character.  The  poor  Scotch  woman 
who  by  hard  labour  and  sacrifice  saved  $60.00  and 
gave  it  to  David  Livingstone,  the  missionary  and 
explorer,  to  provide  for  him  an  African  body  servant, 
was  potentially  a  Livingstone.  And  when  the  body 
servant  thus  obtained  saved  Livingstone's  life  from  the 
attack  of  a  lion,  she  had  given  Livingstone  to  Africa 
the  remainder  of  his  days.  A  box  of  clothing  sent  to 
frontier  missionaries  lifts  the  donors  to  the  missionary 
plane,  if  the  gift  is  in  the  name  of  a  disciple  and 
is  born  of  appreciation  of  God's  prophets  on  the 
frontier. 

We  need  not  be  discouraged  when  we  compare  our 
lives  with  those  of  the  great  apostles  Paul  and  Peter 
and  John,  or  with  those  of  Carey  and  Judson  and 
Yates  and  Morrison,  provided  only  their  spirit  ani- 
mates us.  Potentially  we  are  apostles  and  missionaries 
if  by  our  deeds  we  show  appreciation  of  their  work. 

(2)  The  second  conclusion  from  the  text  is  the  unity 


94  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  the  Christian  reward.  "He  that  receiveth  a  prophet, 
in  the  name  of  a  prophet,  shall  receive  a  prophet's 
reward."  The  prophet's  reward  here  is  not  what  the 
prophet  can  bestow  in  return  for  favours  done  to  him. 
It  is  rather  the  reward  God  will  bestow  on  the  prophet 
for  his  prophetic  service. 

Here  is  a  very  suggestive  principle.  In  a  sense  it 
is  greater  to  appreciate  greatness  than  to  be  great. 
There  may  not  be  great  merit  in  being  great.  God's 
gift  of  a  great  brain  or  heart  does  not  imply  merit. 
That  comes  only  through  the  use  we  make  of  them. 
The  three-year-old  girl  just  reported  in  Germany  who 
is  a  musical  prodigy,  playing  from  memory  the  great- 
est classical  compositions,  is  a  wonder;  but  there  is 
scarcely  more  merit  in  her  genius  than  there  is  in 
the  mocking-bird  which  pours  melody  from  its  throat 
as  a  fountain  sends  out  a  stream  of  water.  You  do 
not  think  of  merit  in  a  rose  for  its  beauty,  or  in  the 
star  for  its  brilliancy,  or  a  nightingale  for  its  note. 
Genius  and  talent  are  not  merit.  Merit  comes  of  their 
use  and  improvement.  Genius  and  talent  are  hard  to 
consecrate  because  they  call  forth  human  applause. 
It  is  not  easy  to  hear  distinctly  the  inner  voice  of 
conscience  when  the  thunder  of  outward  applause 
is  ringing  in  our  ears;  or  to  keep  in  the  mind's  eye 
the  recording  angel  and  his  faithful  pen  when  our 
performances  are  being  exploited  in  flaring  headlines 
in  the  daily  press.  Hence  it  is  that  the  humble  and 
unremembered  man  whose  generous  appreciation  of 
the  prophet  makes  him  willing  to  unloose  the  latchet 
of  his  shoe,  or  hold  open  the  door  unrecognized 
while  the  other  passes  through,  may  thus  perform 
an  act  of  greater  moral  grandeur  than  the  great  man 
himself. 


THE  SUPREME  QUALITY  95 

To  applaud  is  morally  nobler  than  to  be  applauded. 
It  is  the  little  and  the  sour  nature,  the  shrivelled  spirit 
which  indulges  in  petty  criticism.  When  Henry  M. 
Stanley,  the  great  African  explorer,  at  his  wedding 
in  Westminster  Abbey  paused  long  enough  on  the  way 
to  the  altar  to  lay  a  wreath  of  white  flowers  on  the 
tomb  of  his  great  forerunner  and  predecessor,  David 
Livingstone,  he  did  a  nobler  act  than  the  slaying  of 
a  lion  would  have  been  in  the  jungles  of  the  dark 
continent. 

The  very  crown  of  Christian  character  is  this  in- 
sight and  appreciation  of  moral  worth  in  others, 
coupled  with  a  struggle  to  attain  it.  Character  will  blos- 
som fully  only  thus.  Heaven  is  in  great  measure  simply 
appreciation  of  moral  values  outside  of  ourselves. 
John's  picture  of  heaven  is  a  scene  of  such  apprecia- 
tion. The  redeemed  host  cast  their  crowns  down  at 
the  feet  of  Him  thac  sitteth  on  the  throne  and  cry, 
"Holy,  holy,  holy,"  and  also  they  say,  "worthy  is  the 
lamb  that  hath  been  slain  to  receive  glory  and  do- 
minion." A  man's  place  in  the  scale  of  moral  worth 
is  fixed  by  the  homage  which  he  pays  to  the  moral 
ideal  in  Jesus  Christ.  His  moral  energy  and  vigour  are 
determined  by  the  power  with  which  the  moral  law 
in  Christ  grips  his  life. 

But  some  one  asks,  "Will  the  rewards  of  heaven 
be  the  same  in  all?  Is  that  what  you  mean  by  the 
Christian  reward?"  Not  at  all.  Because  there  are 
some  who  never  rise  to  an  appreciation  of  the  highest 
and  noblest.  Their  moral  outreach  Is  a  limited  one. 
They  do  not  enter  the  prophet's  passion,  or  the 
prophet's  burden,  and  the  prophet's  purpose.  They 
have  moral  appreciation  on  the  lower  levels  but  not 
on  the  higher.     Their  rewards  will  be  on  the  level 


96  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  their  appreciations  though  not  even  there  perhaps 
absolutely  the  same  with  all. 

(3)  Observe  finally  the  unity  of  the  moral  kingdom 
in  Christ.  The  supreme  merit  of  the  cup  of  water 
given  in  the  name  of  a  disciple,  and  of  the  service 
rendered  the  prophet  in  the  name  of  a  prophet,  is  that 
these  are  but  a  service  rendered  to  Christ  Himself. 
At  the  last  judgment  scene  are  the  most  remarkable 
words  in  Scripture,  "Come  ye  blessed  of  my  father," 
etc.  Three  remarkable  things  are  to  be  noted  about 
these  words.  One  is  the  absence  of  blame.  There 
were  sins  and  failures  and  shortcomings  in  the  record 
of  every  life  before  The  Judge.  Yet  there  is  no 
mention  of  any  of  them.  There  is  nothing  but 
generous  appreciation  of  them.  It  is  the  detec- 
tion of  moral  worth  on  the  part  of  the  Judge,  in  his 
people. 

A  second  remarkable  thing  is  the  absence  of  refer- 
ence to  His  own  service  for  them.  There  is  Calvary 
in  the  background.  There  is  the  agony  of  the  bloody 
sweat.  There  is  the  darkness  and  the  expiation,  the 
cruel  nails  and  the  spear  and  the  bitter  reproaches 
of  the  enemies  about  the  cross,  and  the  sense  of  aban- 
donment and  orphanhood.  There  is  all  that  concen- 
tration of  human  hate  and  rage  and  the  infinite  worth 
of  His  atoning  death  which  enabled  these  redeemed 
to  stand  there  in  His  presence  at  the  judgment  scene. 
Yet  we  hear  no  mention  of  all  this.  Our  appreciation 
of  Christ's  death  was  His  desire. 

The  third  remarkable  thing  here  is  His  selection  of 
the  trivial  acts  and  deeds  as  criteria  of  judgment. 
"Ye  gave  me  meat,  drink,"  etc.  No  wonder  they  are 
surprised  at  the  words,  surprised  that  He  speaks  not 
of   brilliant   and   heroic    achievements   and   historic 


THE  SUPREIVIE   QUALITY  97 

events,  but  only  of  feeding  the  hungry  and  kindred 
deeds. 

I  gather  from  all  this  the  meaning  that  by  reason 
of  His  union  and  identification  with  humanity,  all 
humanity  is  sacred ;  and  this,  that  service  rendered 
to  the  least  is  service  rendered  to  Him ;  and  this,  that 
all  human  conduct  w^hether  on  a  great  or  lowly  scale, 
is  rendered  sacred  by  its  reference  to  Him ;  and  this, 
that  our  appreciation  of  worth  in  others  is  but  a  reflec- 
tion of  His  appreciation  of  worth  in  others,  that  amid 
mines  of  gold  and  silver  and  diamonds  and  all  other 
forms  of  wealth,  men  and  women  are  God's  chief 
asset,  and  that  the  service  of  man  is  but  carrying 
forward  the  great  and  sublime  undertaking  of  God  in 
creating  a  universe,  and  who  reached  the  climax  of 
His  work  only  when  he  said,  "Let  us  make  man." 


X 


SONSHIP  THROUGH   SUFFERING,   OR  THE 
UNITY  OF  NATURE  AND  GRACE 

Romans  8:  19-23 — "For  the  earnest  expectation  of 
the  creature  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons 
of  God. 

"For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not 
willingly,  hut  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subjected  the 
same  in  hope. 

"Because  the  creature  itself  also  shall  be  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

"For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now. 

"And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves  also  which  have 
the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the 
redemption  of  our  body." 

II  Corinthians  5 : 4. — "For  we  that  are  in  this  tab- 
ernacle do  groan,  being  burdened;  not  that  we  would 
be  unclothed,  but  clothed  upon,  that  mortality  might 
be  swallowed  up  of  life." 

THE  nineteenth  verse  and  the  twenty-first  verse 
of  this  chapter  compared  with  the  twenty- 
third  verse,  suggest  our  subject :  We  wish  to 
compare  the  teachings  of  these  two  parts  of  Scripture 
and  trace  the  very  striking  parallel  which  they  contain. 

98 


SONSHIP  THROUGH  SUFFERINGS      99 

I.  Observe  first  then  the  unity  of  nature  and  grace 
as  here  set  forth.  We  are  not  concerned  at  the  present 
moment,  as  we  shall  be  a  little  later,  to  dwell  on  the 
process  of  nature  and  the  process  of  grace.  We  would 
emphasize  at  this  stage  the  one  point  that  nature  and 
grace  are  in  harmony.  Paul  takes  a  look  at  nature  and 
finds  that  the  whole  creation  is  doing  a  particular 
thing.  Then  he  takes  a  look  at  grace  at  work  in 
Christians  and  finds  that  the  same  general  process  is 
going  on. 

God  is  like  a  player  at  a  piano,  so  to  speak.  With 
one  hand  He  plays  on  the  human  heart  and  conscience 
and  will.  With  the  other  He  plays  on  physical  nature. 
These  two  are  parts  of  the  same  great  harmony,  like 
one  of  Beethoven's  compositions,  the  parts  are  all  put 
together  and  continued  on  a  principle  of  unity.  Or 
we  may  say  there  is  an  antiphony  between  nature  and 
grace,  like  the  separated  parts  of  a  great  chorus.  The 
leader  turns  to  nature  and  gives  the  signal  and  this 
part  of  the  chorus  responds.  Then  he  turns  to  grace, 
the  human  world,  the  redemptive  process,  and  this  re- 
sponds. The  two  are  members  of  the  one  great  chorus 
of  God. 

When  Mr.  Drummond  wrote  his  book,  "Natural 
Law  in  the  Spiritual  World,"  it  was  criticized  for  the 
attempt  to  identify  the  processes  of  nature  and  grace. 
For  example,  Drummond  said  that  immortality  was 
just  the  result  of  the  operation  of  a  natural  law.  If 
a  perfect  organism  could  find  a  perfect  environment 
and  if  the  organism  could  have  uninterrupted  corres- 
pondence with  environment,  eternal  life  would  neces- 
sarily follow:  a  perfect  fish  in  a  perfect  sea,  and  per- 
fect correspondence,  for  example.  The  regenerated  soul 
is  the  organism,  he  said,  God  is  the  environment,  and 


100  THE   LIFE   IN   CHRIST 

there  is  perfect  and  unbroken  correspondence.  The 
result  is  eternal  life.  The  criticism  of  Drummond  was 
partly  correct.  But  while  there  may  not  be  identity 
between  the  way  nature  acts  and  the  way  grace  acts, 
there  is  agreement.  There  is  harmony,  and  at  some 
points  the  parallel  is  very  close. 

There  is  no  conflict  between  science  and  religion. 
They  simply  look  at  the  same  object  from  different 
points  of  view.  I  saw  a  photograph  recently  of  a 
handsome  Kentucky  home  which  is  very  familiar  to 
me,  yet  I  failed  to  recognize  it  at  first.  The  pictures 
were  taken  from  the  end  and  gave  a  view  of  the  port 
cochere,  and  not  from  the  front  with  its  fine  row  of 
columns.  I  was  more  familiar  with  the  columns.  Now 
science  looks  at  nature  from  the  port  cochere  side, 
and  religion  looks  at  it  from  the  front.  They  do  not 
contradict  but  only  supplement  each  other.  It  is  folly, 
therefore,  for  any  one  to  set  up  antagonisms  between 
genuine  science  and  true  religion.  They  cannot  claim 
the  beatitude  of  peace-makers,  "Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers, for  they  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 
We  should  rather  enlarge  our  view  to  contain  both. 
The  world  is  like  a  great  plant  with  the  human  soul 
as  the  blossom  at  the  top.  Science  investigates  the 
roots.  Religion  deals  in  the  flower.  The  city  of 
nature  which  science  is  building,  which  is  coming 
up  from  below,  has  upon  it  the  silver  light  of  human 
reason.  But  it  is  not  in  conflict  with  the  city  of 
gold  which  is  coming  down  from  above  with  the  light 
of  revelation  upon  it.  Science  delves  downward — 
religion  looks  up.  But  if  science  should  dig  deep 
enough  she  would  come  out  under  the  same  sky. 

The  text,  it  must  be  owned,  emphasizes  the  agree- 
ment between  nature  and  grace  at  a  sombre  point. 


SONSHIP  THROUGH  SUFFERINGS    101 

Nature  groans,  and  grace  groans.  "The  whole  crea- 
tion groaneth."  "We  groan."  Groaning  is  a  forbid- 
ding and  disagreeable  object.  One  is  reminded  of 
what  a  gentleman  said:  "A  friend  of  mine  the  other 
day  paid  ten  dollars  to  go  to  hear  Patti  sing.  But 
in  all  my  life  I  never  heard  of  any  one  paying  ten 
cents  to  hear  another  person  groan." 

But  after  all  there  are  two  kinds  of  groaning.  There 
is  the  groaning  of  defeat  and  of  loss,  and  of  despair, 
the  groan  of  the  pessimist.  But  there  is  also  the 
groaning  of  desire,  of  expectation  and  of  hope.  In 
prayer  there  is  the  groaning  of  deep  desire.  "The 
spirit  himself  maketh  intercession  for  us,  with  groan- 
ings  which  cannot  be  uttered."  In  the  two  texts  it  is 
the  pain  and  anguish  of  desire,  the  yearning  for  higher, 
better  things  that  causes  the  groaning.  Some  great 
and  wonderful  result  is  foreshadowed,  some  bright 
consummation,  some  wondrous  goal.  Let  us  therefore 
reserve  our  judgment,  for  the  moment,  as  to  the  value 
of  the  groaning. 

II.  Notice  next  the  reason  for  the  painful  process 
in  nature.  Nature  groans  because  she  is  seeking  by 
a  process  of  her  own  to  produce  a  result  above  nature. 
Nature  groans  because  she  is  discontented  with  her- 
self. Nature  produces  a  crystal,  we  shall  say,  and  I 
imagine  her  rejoicing  over  it.  It  is  a  beautiful  thing, 
she  says,  but  I  want  something  higher.  So  she  pro- 
duces a  flower,  and  she  lingers  over  It,  saying  it  is 
very  good.  But  again  a  longing  seizes  her  for  some- 
thing higher  still,  and  she  produces  a  bird,  a  winged 
creature.  She  goes  on  improving  the  type  and  rising 
higher  in  the  scale  of  creation. 

Now  we  are  learning  that  one  of  nature's  great 
secrets  is  the  principle  of  pain  and  death.     Without 


102  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

death  the  world  would  be  crowded  with  the  lower 
creatures.  The  higher  forms  would  have  no  standing 
room.  They  tell  us  that  the  golden  eagle  lives  just 
long  enough  to  promote  the  breed  of  eagles.  They 
do  not  live  too  long  lest  their  increase  be  beyond  the 
food  supply.  Nor  do  they  die  too  soon,  lest  the  race 
of  eagles  become  weakened  and  perish.  The  length 
of  life  seems  to  be  determined  by  the  law  that  nature 
is  bent  on  producing  the  best,  and  strongest  and  most 
beautiful  type  of  eagles.  Death  is  necessary.  Thus 
death,  an  angel  in  sombre  robes  and  forbidding  mien, 
enters  on  the  fair  creation  of  God.  But  what  does 
death  do?  Death  unlocks  and  unbars  the  gates  of 
destiny  and  through  it  enters  the  angel  of  life  in 
resplendent  robes. 

Now  science  agrees  exactly  with  revelation  in  this 
that  the  fierce  struggle  between  death  and  life  is  going 
on  in  creation,  and  that  death  is  a  servant  of  life. 
The  aim  throughout  is  to  produce  a  being  with  greater 
life,  and  ever  greater  life.  The  aim  is  to  produce  finally 
an  immortal  being,  a  being  which  can  never  die.  By 
the  gradual  conquest  of  death,  death  is  slowly  driven 
back.  By  and  by  a  being — man — arises,  who  towers 
high  above  the  animal  and  plant  creation,  with  the 
light  and  glory  of  immortality  upon  his  brow.  In  him 
will  be  achieved  the  final  conquest  of  death. 

What  kind  of  a  being,  then,  is  this  undying  crea- 
ture which  stands  forth  as  the  crown  of  nature?  We 
find  the  answer  in  Revelation.  '  The  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  gives  it.  In  the  order  of  creation  the  grass 
came  first  among  living  things.  Then  came  the  fishes 
and  the  fowls  and  then  the  beasts,  and  finally,  crown- 
ing the  flight  of  the  stairs  of  creation,  stood  man  him- 
self.    Now  the  statement  is  made  that  God  worked; 


SONSHIP  THROUGH  SUFFERINGS    103 

He  laboured  six  days,  and  finally  He  rested.  Evidently 
He  was  aiming  at  a  definite  result.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  producing  a  deathless  being,  and  one  which 
reflected  back  His  own  image.  He  did  not  rest  until 
He  had  created  a  being  whose  nature  was  like  a  mirror 
into  which  God  could  look  and  see  His  own  image 
reflected.  All  other  created  things  were  broken  lights 
of  Him.  A  gleam  of  Him  appeared  in  the  sunlight. 
Some  of  His  beauty  in  the  varied  forms  and  colours 
of  the  world.  A  little  spark  of  Him  in  the  life  of  the 
lower  creatures.  But  only  in  man  does  He  find  His 
complete  image  reflected  and  flashed  back  as  a  dew- 
drop  flashes  back  the  image  of  the  sun,  or  as  tall 
mountains  around  it  are  mirrored  in  the  bosom  of  the 
lake.  "The  expectation  of  the  creation  waiteth  for  the 
revealing  of  the  sons  of  God." 

Now  both  texts  unite  in  the  great  conclusion.  God 
was  working  and  is  working  in  nature  and  grace  to 
produce  a  son,  a  race  of  sons  and  daughters,  immortal 
and  bearing  His  own  image. 

"For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  waiteth 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God. 

"For  the  creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not 
willingly,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subjected  the 
same  in  hope. 

"Because  the  creature  itself  also  shall  be  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  lib- 
erty of  the  children  of  God. 

"For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now. 

"And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves  also  which  have 
the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the 
redemption  of  our  body. 


104  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

"For  we  that  are  in  this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being 
burdened;  not  for  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but 
clothed  upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed  up 
of  life." 

Both  my  texts  agree  in  this  that  pain  and  death 
enter  into  the  method  and  plan  of  God,  that  death 
ministers  to  life. 

III.  I  observe  next  the  reason  for  the  painful 
process  in  grace.  We  have  seen  that  the  travail  of 
nature  is  towards  sonship,  and  that  pain  and  death 
assist  nature  in  the  process.  Now  when  God  had 
crowned  His  creative  work  by  producing  man  the  im- 
mortal— sin  entered.  Man  fell  and  death  came  as  a 
penalty  for  transgression.  Death  took  up  the  sceptre 
and  reigned. 

Shall  God's  work  be  destroyed?  Shall  the  end  of 
creation  be  defeated?  No.  Grace  enters  and  begins 
the  final  conflict  with  death.  But  we  groan  even 
under  grace.  Pain  and  suffering  still  linger  on  the 
scene. 

Now  there  are  two  possible  reasons  for  the  groaning 
of  the  creature.  One  is  that  the  world  about  us  is 
too  great  for  us,  as  when  birds  and  animals  suffer 
and  die  in  winter,  or  as  when  earthquakes  or  volcanoes 
overwhelm  and  destroy.  But  a  second  possible  reason 
for  the  groaning  of  a  creature  is  that  we  are  too  great 
for  the  world.  Now  this  latter  reason  applies  in  the 
case  of  man.  Man  groans  in  his  present  environment. 
I  mean  especially  redeemed  man,  because  the  world 
is  too  small  for  his  powers.  God  has  set  the  eternal 
in  our  hearts  and  the  temporal  and  finite  do  not  satisfy. 
Man's  unrest  and  groaning,  his  pain  and  anguish,  are 
the  result  of  the  unattained  and  the  unsatisfied  in 
human  desire.    Man  says,  and  will  ever  say,  "I  am  a 


SONSHIP  THROUGH   SUFFERINGS    105 

pilgrim,  I'm  a  stranger  here,  I  can  tarry  but  a  night." 
Heaven  is  my  home.  I  feel  the  motions  of  sonship 
to  the  eternal  God  pulsing  through  my  being.  I  have 
sorrov^s  which  heaven  alone  can  heal.  I  have  losses 
which  eternity  alone  can  compensate.  I  have  a  nature 
which  reaches  up  and  out  to  the  infinite.  It  is  the 
dignity  of  our  nature  as  sons  and  daughters  which 
brings  unrest  and  groanings. 

This  explains  why  the  saint  sometimes  envies  the 
lower  creatures.  You  remember  the  Psalmist,  in  exile 
and  sorrow,  thought  the  sparrow  was  better  off  than 
he.  The  little  sparrow  which  made  its  nest  unmo- 
lested and  lived  out  its  little  life  unafraid  about  the 
temple  in  Jerusalem,  was  to  be  envied  by  him  whose 
thirst  for  the  temple  was  so  deep  and  so  unsatisfied. 
This  is  a  parable  of  all  human  life  which  is  spent 
under  the  sense  of  sonship  to  God.  The  lower  crea- 
tures probably  know  nothing  of  the  kind  of  struggles 
we  have. 

To  the  squirrel  we  say  in  some  of  our  moods: 
"Happy  squirrel.  You  build  your  nest  in  a  tree.  You 
gather  your  store  of  nuts.  You  frolic  in  the  sunshine. 
You  tingle  with  physical  health  and  the  keen  zest  of 
living.  Happy  squirrel.  You  have  no  conscience 
which  can  keep  you  awake  at  night,  and  no  imagination 
to  forebode  sorrows  and  loss.  You  are  not  perplexed 
whether  or  not  your  soul  is  immortal.  You  do  not 
shiver  and  cower  at  the  prospect  of  death.  Happy 
squirrel !" 

Perhaps  It  was  this  mood  which  led  Shelley  to  write 
his  matchless  Ode  to  the  Skylark,  his  own  sense  of 
the  unattained,  and  the  exuberance  and  bounding  joy 
of  the  bird's  life. 


106  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

"Hail  to  thee,  blithe  spirit 
Bird  thou  never  wert 
That  in  heaven  or  near  it 
Pourest  thy  full  heart, 
In  profuse  strains  of  unpremeditated  art. 

"We  look  before  and  after 
And  pine  for  what  is  not,  I 

Our  sincerest  laughter 
With  some  pain  is  fraught. 
Our   sv^eetest  songs   are   those  that  tell  of   saddest 
thought. 

"In  the  golden  lightning 
Or  the  sunken  sun 
O'er  which  clouds  are  brightening, 
Thou  dost  float  and  run 
Like  an  unbodied  joy  whose  race  is  just  begun." 

The  reason  in  each  case  is  clear.  Neither  the  spar- 
row nor  lark  nor  squirrel  has  a  sense  of  the  unful- 
filled. None  of  them  grope  and  fumble  at  the  lock 
in  the  mystery  of  existence.    None  can  say: 

"I  seem  to  hear  a  heavenly  friend 
And  through  thick  veils  to  apprehend 
A  labour  working  to  an  end." 

All  this  squares  with  the  conclusion  we  have  reached. 
In  nature  and  grace  God  is  perfecting  sons  and  daugh- 
ters. The  New  Testament  weaves  its  teaching  around 
this  idea  at  every  point.  "Behold  what  manner  of 
love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us  that  we  should 
be  called  the  sons  of  God."  "For  ye  have  not  received 
the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear;  but  ye  have  re- 
ceived the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba, 


SONSHIP  THROUGH  SUFFERINGS    107 

Father."  "Be  ye  therefore  imitators  of  God  as  dear 
children."  "It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be, 
but  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall  be 
like  him." 

IV.  One  step  remains  in  our  argument  to  round  it 
out,  and  that  is  to  show  how  pain  and  suffering  are 
used.  What  can  these  do  to  make  us  sons?  The 
answer  is  found  in  that  principle  which  lies  at  the 
heart  of  the  Gospel.  Sonship  comes  first  of  all  by 
faith  and  is  developed  by  sacrifice  and  by  a  particular 
kind  of  sacrifice.    There  are  several  kinds  of  sacrifice. 

There  is  unconscious  sacrifice.  One  crop  of  weeds 
will  give  up  their  life  that  another  may  rise  from 
the  enriched  soil.  One  set  of  forest  trees  will  give 
place  to  another.  In  Denmark  this  has  gone  on.  The 
aspen  gave  place  to  the  birch;  and  this  in  turn  to  the 
fir ;  and  this  to  the  oak ;  and  finally  the  beech  displaced 
the  oak  and  now  reigns  in  the  Danish  forests. 

Then,  too,  there  is  instinctive  sacrifice.  The  mother 
bird  and  mother  beast  by  an  instinct  of  their  natures 
yield  up  their  lives  for  their  young. 

Among  men  there  is  much  of  involuntary  sacrifice. 
Men  suffer  for  the  sins  of  others  against  their  wills. 
The  lives  of  a  score  are  dashed  out  in  a  railroad  wreck 
through  the  carelessness  of  a  yardman  who  failed 
to  look  after  a  switch,  and  so  in  many  other  forms 
of' involuntary  sacrifice. 

But  the  highest  of  all  forms  of  sacrifice,  and  that 
which  develops  our  sonship,  is  that  which  is  voluntary. 
This  was  the  kind  Jesus  practised  when  He  came  to 
earth.  "Being  in  the  form  of  God,  he  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God:  But  made  himself 
of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a 
servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men:  And 


108  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself, 
and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross." 

This  is  the  kind  He  would  reproduce  in  us.  This 
is  the  meaning  of  His  words,  "If  any  man  would  be 
my  disciple,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his 
cross  daily,  and  follow  me."  It  is  the  voluntary  choice 
of  the  cross.  And  this:  "Except  a  grain  of  wheat 
fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone;  but  if 
it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit."  And  this :  "Put 
to  death  therefore  your  members."  It  is  the  same 
principle  of  death,  of  pain.  All  men  have  burdens 
and  tasks,  but  they  are  only  dignified  and  glorified  into 
crosses  when  voluntarily  chosen. 

Now  the  early  stages  of  voluntary  sacrifice  are  often 
painful.  But  the  later  ones  are  joyous  because  the 
principle  becomes  inwrought  in  character.  Our  early 
service  to  Christ,  how  painful !  How  it  goes  against 
the  grain  to  confess  Him,  but  by  and  by  it  gives  us  joy 
to  make  the  brave  stand  for  Him  even  among  foes. 
Our  early  Christian  work  is  often  very  irksome,  but 
later  it  becomes  a  joy  indescribable.  Our  early  giving 
may  pain  us,  but  later  the  blessedness  of  it  comes. 
Our  early  sorrows  seem  incurable,  but  finally  they  are 
mitigated  at  least  and  we  know  the  beatitude, 
"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for  they  shall  be  com- 
forted." Our  doubts,  too,  how  they  gall  us  and  make 
us  groan.  But  after  a  while  we  get  relief  and  comfort 
and  can  say: 

"I  see  the  wrong  that  round  me  lies, 
I  feel  the  guilt  within, 
I  hear  the  groan  and  travail  cries 
The  world  confess  its  sin. 


SONSHIP  THROUGH  SUFFERINGS    109 

"Yet  in  the  maddening  maze  of  things 
And  tossed  by  storm  and  flood, 
To  one  fixed  stake  my  spirit  cHngs, 
I  know  that  God  is  good. 

*T  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air. 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

But  the  end  of  the  process  is  spontaneous  sacrifice, 
spontaneous  love,  and  this  is  the  divine  element  in 
character.  Sonship  matures  when  sacrifice  becomes 
voluntary.  Character  ripens  when  it  is  painful  to  be 
unloving.  We  become  sons  when  we  spontaneously 
imitate  God.  Thus  we  see  the  uses  of  the  groaning; 
thus  we  understand  the  service  of  the  angel  of  pain 
and  the  angel  of  death.  It  is  to  lead  us  to  the  con- 
quest of  death  and  pain  until  we  know  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  words,  "If  the  Son  shall  make  you  free, 
ye  shall  be  free  indeed,"  and  of  this,  "the  liberty  of 
the  glory  of  the  sons  of  God." 

Now  God  is  seeking  to  train  us  into  appreciation  of 
His  method.  He  desires  our  cooperation.  He  yearns 
over  us  and  desires  most  of  all  that  we  shall  respond 
to  Him,  and  yield  ourselves  up  to  Him.  He  sees  all 
the  possibilities  of  our  nature.  He  is  striving  to  develop 
them.  He  would  enrich  us  and  enlarge  our  capacities 
to  their  full  limit.  This  He  will  do  without  fail  if  we 
respond  and  cooperate  in  faith  and  love. 

In  conclusion,  what  do  we  see  as  the  issue  of  all? 
We  see  that  the  dark  shadows  that  lie  across  the  face 
of  nature  have  as  their  end  the  making  of  sons  of 
God,  and  that  the  dark  shadows  which  hover  over 


110  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

the  process  of  grace  have  the  same  end  in  view. 
Through  pain  and  sorrow,  through  the  long  dark  vale 
of  life,  with  its  cruel  briars  and  sharp  stones,  fares 
the  man  whom  God  is  making  into  a  son.  But  he 
goes  not  unattended.  Grace  holds  him  by  the  right 
hand,  and  nature  by  the  left.  Thus  he  is  led  upward 
out  of  the  shadows  as  a  son  to  meet  God's  eternal 
Son,  our  elder  brother,  Christ,  whom  God  sent  to  re- 
deem us.  And,  lo,  the  redeemed  Son  looking  into  the 
glorified  face  of  the  redeeming  Son  discovers  in  that 
face  the  moral  likeness  of  his  own  purged  and  purified 
nature,  and  discovers  in  Christ  the  author  and  per- 
fecter  of  his  own  faith. 


XI 

CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD 

{A  sermon  to  young  men.) 

Luke  9 :  62 — No  man  having  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough,  and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

1LIKE  the  homely  beauty  of  the  plough  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  heroic  life.  Elsewhere  Jesus  sets 
out  the  same  idea  under  a  military  figure.  But 
a  part  of  the  military  hero's  victory  belongs  to  the 
applauding  public,  which  stimulates  him  to  conquer. 
There  is  little  in  the  ploughman's  work  of  itself,  how- 
ever, to  inspire  heroism.  The  task  is  lonely,  hard  and 
lowly.  For  that  very  reason  it  is  one  of  the  hardest 
sayings  of  Jesus.  Because  it  is  a  hard  saying,  I  bring 
it  to  you.  I  scorn  the  type  of  Christianity  which 
thinks  to  attract  young  men  by  setting  up  an  easy  goal 
of  endeavour.  I  would  not  so  insult  their  manhood. 
In  the  other  sayings  of  Christ  in  this  passage  He 
is  sifting  men  by  an  eternal  standard.  To  the  im- 
petuous and  thoughtless  and  would-be  disciple  He 
says,  "Foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  heaven  nests ; 
but  the  son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head." 
To  the  reluctant  who  would  go  first  and  bury  his 
dead.  He  says,  "Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead,  but  go 
and  publish  abroad  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  to 
this  one  who  wished  to  pay  a  farewell  visit  to  his  home 

111 


112  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

Jesus  says:  "No  man  having  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough  and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
God." 

In  all  this  Christ  is  simply  putting  the  unerring 
finger  of  boundless  wisdom  upon  the  weak  spot  in 
human  character.  He  is  equating  manhood  over 
against  the  kingdom  of  God.  His  words  are  like  a 
strong  wind  blowing  through  a  forest,  which  lays 
the  weak  trees  level  with  the  earth,  but  leaves  the 
strong  in  greater  strength,  or  like  a  raging  flame  which 
destroys  all  that  is  inflammable  and  purifies  the  rest. 

And  yet  no  teacher  ever  made  achievement  so  at- 
tractive, or  quickened  the  human  spirit  to  a  keener 
realization  of  the  joys  of  triumph.  No  one  ever  gave 
such  a  tonic  to  the  will,  or  lured  to  greater  heights. 
No  one  ever  honoured  manhood  and  the  will  to  live 
and  do  by  setting  it  to  tasks  so  worthy.  He  estimated 
manhood  too  highly  to  be  content  with  anything  but 
a  worthy  goal  and  efifort.  He  loves  us  too  much  to 
be  willing  that  we  should  set  our  powers  to  a  task 
too  low.  Hence  from  my  text  I  get  this  subject, 
Christ's  Challenge  to  Manhood. 

I.  Notice,  first,  Christ's  challenge  to  the  choice  of 
manhood :  putting  the  hand  to  the  plough. 

Now  this  choice  to  which  Christ  throws  out  the 
challenge  implies  three  things.     One  is 

The  reality  of  the  divine  Kingdom. 

The  fitness  of  which  He  speaks  is  a  fitness  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Does  a  man  accept  the  fact  of  a 
world  of  spiritual  realities?  There  is  one  side  of  the 
modern  spirit  which  denies  that  anything  is  a  fact 
unless  you  can  see  it  or  touch  it.  It  must  be  a  mass 
of  matter  in  some  form  to  pass  muster  as  belonging 
to  the  real  world.    The  ocean  with  its  burden  of  the 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    113 

world's  commerce  is  a  fact.  The  Simplon  tunnel, 
running  fourteen  miles  through  the  Alps,  connecting 
the  traffic  of  Italy  and  Northern  Europe ;  the  Matter- 
horn,  piercing  the  clouds  with  sharp  point,  like  a 
flying  shaft  of  granite,  hurled  from  a  subterranean 
catapult,  fourteen  thousand  feet  into  the  air;  the 
planets,  the  sun  in  the  heaven  yonder ;  these  are  facts, 
men  say,  because  they  are  bulky  and  vast. 

But  the  choice  of  the  plough  of  the  Kingdom  implies 
belief  in  a  higher  set  of  facts.  One  of  these  is  con- 
science, man's  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  obligation, 
duty,  righteousness.  Another  is  brotherhood,  man's 
kinship  to  all  other  men;  still  another  is  immortality, 
an  endless  existence  in  a  future  world.  These  are 
also  facts,  realities.  Moral  conviction  is  like  the 
Alpine  mountain  range  running  through  all  human 
experience.  The  belief  in  immortality  is  a  cloud- 
piercing  peak  which  rises  like  a  Matterhorn  out  of 
that  conviction ;  while  man's  assurance  that  Death  does 
not  end  all  runs  like  a  tunnel  through  the  barrier  on 
the  bounds  of  life,  since  Christ  came  forth  a  conqueror 
of  death.  The  fact  of  God  is  the  universal  convic- 
tion of  man,  the  sun  in  his  spiritual  heaven.  The 
choice,  of  a  merely  commercial  or  political  career, 
implies  belief  in  a  Kingdom  of  commercial  and 
political  forces,  but  these  in  turn  rest  upon  the  higher 
world  of  moral  and  spiritual  realities.  The  universe 
is  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

(2)  This  choice  implies  also  the  acceptance  by  man 
of  a  birthright  and  destiny  in  this  Kingdom.  One 
has  well  said,  "The  purpose  of  God  in  creation  did 
not  appear  until  the  dust  stood  erect  in  the  form  of  a 
man."  Man  as  we  know  him  is  the  crown  of  Nature, 
and  Christ  is  the  crown  of  humanity.    God  and  man 


114  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

meet  in  Christ,  He  who  was  the  effulgence  of  the 
Father's  glory,  and  the  image  of  His  substance,  is 
also  the  archetype  of  humanity.  His  challenge  to  the 
choice  of  the  plough  is  the  challenge  to  the  pursuit 
of  this  ideal  forever.  The  eternally  forward  look  of 
him  who  putteth  his  hand  to  the  plough  means  nothing 
less. 

(3)  Christ's  challenge  to  the  choice  of  the  plough 
implies  also  an  appeal  to  the  element  of  sovereignty 
in  man.  The  plough  must  be  freely  chosen.  Others 
were  equally  free,  but  not  fit.  One  went  to  bury  his 
dead  or  to  bid  good-bye  to  his  friends.  They  were 
free  but  not  fit.  Christ  seeks  those  who  are  free 
and  fit. 

In  a  word  of  wondrous  import  we  read  in  the  Gospel 
of  John :  "He  that  hath  received  him,  hath  set  his  seal 
to  this,  that  God  is  true."  Now  a  seal  is  a  King's 
means  of  making  a  document  authoritative  and  final. 
The  individual  is  a  King,  a  sovereign.  This  element 
of  sovereignty  is  the  whole  Key  to  man's  nature  and 
dignity.  It  is  God's  image  in  us.  Everything  great 
which  happens  to  a  man  comes  through  his  sovereign 
choice.  The  value  of  a  thing  for  any  man  depends 
upon  his  own  sovereign  choice  of  it,  the  moral  and 
spiritual  choices  especially.  Hence  everywhere  the 
Scriptures  represent  salvation,  sonship,  life,  as  coming 
through  human  choice.  These  great  things  cannot  be 
given  merely,  they  must  be  appropriated.  "To  as  many 
as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  (authority) 
to  become  the  sons  of  God."  One  of  the  most  striking 
of  all  the  instances  of  the  exercise  of  this  freedom 
of  a  created  will  is  in  the  words  which,  in  the  Drama 
of  Exile,  Mrs.  Browning  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Satan 
when  he  boasts  that  he  is  a  part  of  God's  universe 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    115 

and  is  yet  neither  God  nor  His  servant.  Nothing 
more  fearful  than  that  can  well  be  imagined.  By 
emphasizing  the  necessity  of  human  choice,  I  have 
no  thought  of  calling  in  question  man's  need  of  grace 
in  all  his  supreme  choices.  But  God's  grace  shows 
itself  in  the  human  choice  of  the  good.  That  is  its 
true  aim  and  result. 

Now  there  are  two  kinds  of  doubt  which  may  be 
in  the  way  of  the  choice  of  the  plough  of  Christ.  One 
is  active  and  the  other  passive  doubt.  Here  again  we 
see  how  directly  Christ's  challenge  is  to  manhood.  The 
passive  doubter  is  the  one  who  has  surrendered  to  the 
material  world,  who  has  not  the  heroism  to  plunge 
into  the  world  of  spirit  and  grapple  with  its  stupendous 
problems.  Passive  doubt  is  the  doubt  of  the  indolent, 
the  weary,  the  unaspiring.  Active  doubt  will  brook 
no  defeat.  It  is  morally  in  earnest.  It  looks  stead- 
fastly and  steadily  into  the  universe  as  a  whole. 

We  are  witnessing  a  marvellous  thing  in  our  day 
among  the  doubters.  By  what  seems  to  be  an  inevit- 
able gravitation,  or  spiritual  law,  the  morally  earnest, 
the  active  doubters,  are  gradually  ranging  themselves 
around  Christ.  They  may  not  wholly  accept  all  His 
claims  at  first ;  but  they  discover  in  the  plough  of  His 
appointment  the  real  call  to  the  career  of  a  true  man. 
The  morally  earnest  and  strenuous  life  Christ  inspires 
above  all  others.  And  as  criticism  cuts  and  slashes 
at  the  records  of  His  earthly  life,  whether  with  good 
or  evil  intent,  His  figure  is  but  the  more  completely 
liberated,  and  the  beauty  and  winsomeness  of  His  face 
attract  men  with  irresistible  power. 

And  in  following  Him  what  do  they  find?  They 
find  that  the  light  grows  brighter.  The  tangle  and 
mystery  of  existence  pass  gradually  away  and  they  find 


116  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

that  only  the  selfish  and  the  sensual  and  those  chained 
to  the  trifling  and  petty  pursuits  and  aims  are  the 
blind.  They  find  that  the  great  aim  gives  the  vision 
of  God;  that: 

"Earth  is  crammed  with 
And  every  common  bush  aflame  with  God, 
But  only  they  that  see  it  take  their  shoes  off, 
The  rest  sit  round  it  and  pluck  blackberries, 
And  daub  their  faces  more  and  more  from  the  first 
simiHtude." 

They  find,  in  short,  that  if  a  man  use  his  freedom  to 
follow  the  impulse  to  go  and  bid  his  friends  good- 
bye and  thus  miss  the  greater  choice  and  destiny,  he 
will  remain  in  the  shade wland  of  doubt,  while  another 
by  grasping  with  vigour  the  plough  of  spiritual  destiny 
enters  at  once  into  an  enlarged  career  whence  arises 
no  faintest  desire  to  look  back. 

II.  I  notice  in  the  second  place  Christ's  challenge 
to  manhood's  task,  and  that  is  simply  the  task  of  the 
plough. 

The  plough,  of  course,  is  a  figure,  a  parable  which 
we  must  interpret.  Evidently  it  sums  up  duty  and 
destiny  from  Christ's  point  of  view.  We  may  sum  up 
the  symbolism  of  the  plough  briefly. 

The  plough  certainly  stands  for  the  idea  of  unity 
of  effort  and  purpose.  Now  what  sort  of  unity  does  the 
plough  suggest?  The  forward  look  stands  for  moral 
idealism,  the  conviction  of  that  higher  Kingdom  of 
which  I  spoke  a  few  moments  ago.  The  ploughshare 
that  pierces  the  resisting  earth  stands  for  the  conditions 
under  which  we  must  labour  for  the  ideal.  The  plough 
then  represents  the  task  of  unifying  the  spiritual  with 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    117 

the  natural,  of  bringing  the  divine  down  into  the 
human,  the  task  of  the  plough  is  the  task  of  the  prac- 
tical idealist. 

In  Raphael's]  picture  representing  the  school  of 
Athens,  Plato  is  pointing  upward.  He  is  the  abstract 
idealist.  In  the  same  picture  Aristotle  is  represented 
as  pointing  downward.  He  is  the  concrete  idealist. 
Now  the  plough  of  the  Christian  undertaking  is  the 
parable  of  the  union  of  the  two,  abstract  and  concrete 
idealism,  and  yet  in  a  sense  higher  than  either  Aristotle 
or  Plato  ever  knew.  But  this  unifying  task  we  must 
consider  more  in  detail. 

It  goes,  of  course,  without  saying,  from  the  pre- 
ceding remarks,  that  man's  task  is  supremely  moral. 
To  tunnel  mountains  and  build  railroads,  to  erect  fac- 
tories and  build  cities — this  is  not  man's  chief  task, 
though  a  noble  part  of  it.  Huxley,  who  cared  little 
for  Christianity  in  the  ordinary  sense,  recognized  the 
necessity  and  importance,  nay,  the  primacy  of  the 
moral  interest  above  all  others.  How  to  be  good  was 
to  him  the  supreme  task  of  man.  He  said  that  if  he 
could  make  a  contract  with  some  beneficent  and  mighty 
power  which  could  take  his  nature  every  morning  and 
wind  it  up  like  a  clock,  so  that  he  would  inevitably 
think  right  thoughts  and  do  right  things,  he  would 
close  with  the  offer  at  once.  Ah,  if  he  could  have  not 
only  admired  Christ's  ideal,  but  have  yielded  to  His 
authority,  he  would  have  found  in  Him,  not  a  key  to 
wind  him  up  mechanically,  but  a  divine  and  inspiring 
personal  force  to  quicken  all  the  powers  of  his  being 
into  new  moral  energy.  The  plough  then  stands  for 
the  unity  and  the  steadfastness  of  moral  effort  under 
earthly  conditions. 

This  suggests  another  unity  involved  in  man's  task. 


118  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

and  that  is  of  man's  higher  and  lower  natures,  his 
soul  and  his  body  under  moral  law.  It  is  to  take  all 
the  so-called  lower  side  of  normal  human  life  and 
exalt  it  to  the  plane  of  the  highest.  The  ploughshare 
runs  through  the  fleshly  desires  and  lusts,  it  rips  up 
the  bestial  and  the  base,  and  tills  it  into  a  fruitful 
harvest  field.  In  the  Cologne  Cathedral  in  Germany 
hangs  a  bell  which,  in  and  out  of  season,  sounds  forth 
the  praises  of  God.  It  is  made  of  cannon  captured 
from  the  French,  by  the  Germans,  which  in  1870  were 
trained  against  the  city.  So  must  the  lower  part  of 
us,  the  hostile  part,  be  captured  and  made  to  serve  the 
spirit's  interests.  It  is  no  dishonour,  but  the  glory 
of  man  to  have  a  strong  body.  But  there  is  but  one 
task  of  the  body,  and  Browning  gives  it.  It  is  this: 
"How  far  can  my  body  project  my  soul  along  its 
heavenly  way?"  We  are  shut  up  to  one  or  the  other 
of  the  two  philosophies :  Man  is  either  a  moral  being 
with  manhood  to  win,  or  else  he  is  simply  a  hungry 
animal,  reckless  of  the  lives  of  others,  running  up  and 
down  the  earth  to  satisfy  his  appetite.  The  forward 
look  of  the  spiritual  ploughman  means  simply  this: 
unite  the  forces  of  your  nature,  put  all  the  parts 
together  and  rise  to  an  imperial  spiritual  manhood  in 
Christ. 

The  plough  suggests  another  aspect  of  our  great 
moral  task,  viz. :  that  Christianity  is  more  than  a  gift. 
It  is  also  an  achievement.  There  are  three  forms  of 
righteousness  taught  in  the  New  Testament.  First 
imputed  righteousness,  which  means  that  when  a  man 
accepts  Christ,  God  forgives  him  and  accepts  him. 
The  second  is  imparted  righteousness,  which  means 
that  by  His  Spirit  God  communicates  a  new  moral  and 
spiritual  life  to  man,  regeneration.     The  third  is  at- 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    119 

tained  righteousness.  Man  must  win  righteousness 
by  effort,  after  the  other  forms  of  it  are  given  to  him. 
We  must  work  out  what  God  has  wrought  in  us. 

There  are  two  conceptions  of  the  Christian  life 
which  I  despise.  One  makes  it  a  melancholy  pilgrim- 
age through  a  low  ground  of  sorrow;  the  other  in  a 
shallow  way  treats  it  as  an  expenditure  of  energy  in 
trivialities.  One  regards  life  as  a  funeral  procession ; 
the  other  as  a  game  of  tiddle-de-winks.  Not  so  Jesus, 
not  so  Paul.  Life  is  a  triumphant  battle.  Character 
is  a  thing  to  be  conquered.  We  are  to  climb  a  ladder 
of  fire  to  eternal  moral  heights  and  up  that  steep  and 
flaming  way  none  but  heroic  feet  can  climb,  and  yet 
when  on  the  ladder  once,  the  fiery  foothold  has  no 
power  to  scorch  and  burn,  but  only  to  purify.  Such 
climbers  Jesus  calls.  And  to-night,  young  men,  I  fling 
out  His  challenge  to  you,  and  I  would  despise  myself, 
and  I  would  fail  in  true  respect  for  you  if  I  should 
make  it  easy. 

The  furrow  of  the  plough  of  your  moral  purpose  is 
not  merely  individual.  It  is  also  social,  Man  by  him- 
self is  not  a  man.  You  are  called  to  social  service. 
You  are  a  part  of  the  organic  social  life  of  your  age. 
The  field  which  you  are  tilling  with  your  plough  of 
endeavour  is  for  the  support  of  your  brothers  as  well 
as  yourself.  Young  gentlemen,  the  politics  of  your 
times  needs  you.  Commercial  life  needs  you.  Modern 
business  too  often  melts  and  coins  the  golden  rule  into 
the  golden  dollar,  and  politics  too  often  converts  public 
office  and  civic  righteousness  into  means  for  satisfying 
the  hunger  of  the  beast  of  greed.  Education  needs 
you.  Never  has  there  been  a  more  splendid  opening 
for  the  forces  of  intelligence  than  to-day.  Ideas  rule 
the  world  as  never  before.    The  Christian  enterprise 


120  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

needs  you.  The  Christian  ministry  needs  many  of 
you,  and  that  noblest  of  all  the  chivalries,  the  mission- 
ary enterprise,  calls  for  men.  A  student  volunteer 
convention  was  recently  held.  Thousands  of  the  pick  of 
young  manhood  and  womanhood  from  every  quarter 
of  the  land  were  there.  For  days  they  deliberated  not 
over  any  commercial  or  military  enterprise,  not  even 
over  football  or  baseball,  though  doubtless  there  were 
experts  in  both  games  present;  but  over  the  question 
how  could  they  extend  a  helping  hand  to  their  brothers 
and  sisters  in  China  and  Africa  and  India,  who  are 
less  fortunate  than  they.  They  heard  Christ's  chal- 
lenge and  leaped  to  the  plough. 

Now  this  personal  and  social  task  demands  courage. 
President  Roosevelt  when  police  commissioner  in  New 
York  early  in  his  career,  rigorously  enforced  the  Sun- 
day law  against  saloons,  and  the  Tammany  tiger,  of 
course,  growled  and  struck  out  madly.  Tammany 
called  a  great  meeting,  where  addresses  and  denuncia- 
tions were  to  be  delivered.  Roosevelt,  the  object  of 
all  this  wrath,  was  present  on  the  platform.  The  aver- 
age civic  executive  would  have  been  somewhere  in  hid- 
ing in  these  circumstances.  But  the  young  police 
commissioner  made  the  first  speech  of  the  meeting, 
told  them  that  he  meant  to  enforce  the  law,  good  or 
bad,  as  long  as  it  remained  on  the  statute  book.  If 
it  was  bad,  repeal  it ;  but  as  for  him  he  was  in  office 
to  serve  the  cause  of  righteousness.  As  usual,  courage 
and  manhood  conquered  the  beast.  There  are  acute 
judges  who  think  that  speech  was  the  first  note  in 
Roosevelt's  career  which  indicated  his  fitness  for  the 
White  House. 

I  long  for  a  return  to  this  energetic,  practical  Chris- 
tianty.     It  will  save  us  from  two  perils.     One  is  the 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    121 

peril  of  a  barren  dogmatism,  and  the  other  from  the 
peril  of  a  one-sided  mysticism.  For  one  I  am  a  believer 
in  a  sane  and  Biblical  doctrine.  Christianity  cannot 
be  set  forth  otherwise.  Moreover,  I  am  a  mystic.  I 
believe  in  the  direct  touch  of  the  human  soul  with 
God.  But  I  am  also  aware  that  in  mere  mystic  star- 
gazing a  man  may  trample  under  foot  the  rights  and 
claims  of  brotherhood  and  justice ;  and  that  by  means 
of  barren  dogma  one  may  construct  a  coffin  and  a 
winding-sheet  for  all  spiritual  life.  Unless  mysticism 
is  a  gale  of  refreshment  blowing  from  heaven  to  cool 
the  brow  of  the  worker,  and  unless  dogma  be  made  a 
ploughshare,  cutting  the  furrow  of  practical  endeavour, 
then  both  are  vain  and  empty. 

Of  course  the  plough  symbolizes  a  life  task  under 
conditions  of  resistance.  The  earth  is  a  sluggish 
medium  in  which  to  labour,  and  there  are  rocks  and 
roots  and  difficulties  everywhere.  But  who  except 
the  sluggard  would  have  it  otherwise?  Work  is  the 
law  of  man's  being.  Achievement  is  a  condition  of 
human  happiness.  The  man  who  is  mentally  or 
physically  or  morally  lazy  cannot  triumph  in  Christ's 
Kingdom — nor,  for  that  matter,  in  any  other  Kingdom, 

Yes,  resistance  is  the  unfailing  condition  of  a  life 
task  that  is  worth  while.  Temptations  there  are  all 
along  the  way.  The  temptation,  for  example,  to  for- 
sake the  straight  way  of  gaining  the  world  for  the 
crooked  way;  the  temptation  to  drop  the  plough  han- 
dles and  spend  the  time  resting  in  the  friendly  shade 
of  the  trees.  There  is  the  peril  of  inherited  wealth, 
that  it  may  make  a  man  a  mere  parasite  In  the  body 
politic.  There  is  the  temptation  that  we  be  overcome 
by  pain  and  loss  and  sorrow,  or  by  lust  and  selfishness. 
These  are  stout  foes,  this  is  caked  and  crusted  and 


122  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

stubborn  soil;  but  forget  not  your  plough  song,  no 
matter  how  sore  the  conflict  or  loneliness.  Nobility 
of  character  is  seen  in  nothing  better  than  in  the 
steadfast  pursuit  of  a  high  purpose  in  spite  of  sorrow 
and  pain.  We  do  not  always  know  what  is  at  the 
end  of  the  furrow.  There  was  One  who  saw  a  cross 
there,  and  darkness  and  anguish.  Yet  the  vision  of 
the  cross  did  not  hinder  one  deed  of  kindness.  Its 
bitter  cup  did  not  add  one  note  of  bitterness  to  His 
words,  but  rendered  them  only  the  kindlier.  This  is 
the  meaning  of  Browning's  weird  poem,  "Childe  Ro- 
lande  to  the  Dark  Tower  Came."  Across  scenes  of 
desolation  and  death,  into  the  region  where  the  anathe- 
mas of  Nature  seemed  to  brood  and  blight,  the  Knight 
rode  dauntlessly  on.  At  length,  into  the  forbidding 
tower,  amid  hopelessness  and  despair,  he  plunges  while 
his  horn  sounds  an  exultant  and  triumphant  note. 
Deathless  tenacity  of  purpose,  ah,  this  is  almost  the 
supreme  trait  of  manhood. 

Success  is  not  so  much  an  event  in  a  man's  life  as 
a  trait  of  character.  I  heard  the  other  day  of  a  man 
who  almost  succeeded  in  everything;  but  really  failed 
in  everything.  He  fled  from  each  set  of  circumstances 
to  another  less  refractory.  He  permitted  circum- 
stances to  conquer  his  will  until  he  discovered  with 
dismay  that  every  set  of  circumstances  is  about  as 
refractory  as  every  other.  Failure  thus  became  a  trait 
of  character,  not  an  incident  of  endeavour.  Likewise 
success  may  become  a  trait  of  character.  Indeed,  the 
whole  significance  of  the  plough  is  will  against  cir- 
cumstance, manhood  against  matter,  personality 
against  the  universe.  The  world  assumes  that  you  are 
clay  and  that  it  is  potter  until  you  demonstrate  that 
you  are  potter  and  the  world  is  clay. 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    123 

It  was  always  so.  He  who  falters  and  loses  heart 
under  the  pressure  of  the  forces  of  evil  lacks  imagina- 
tion. I  like  the  painter  who  made  a  picture  repre- 
senting Hope  sitting  as  a  harper.  The  surroundings 
were  a  scene  of  ruin  and  desolation,  all  that  was  fair 
had  passed.  The  strings  of  the  harp  were  all  broken 
except  one.  Yet  over  this  one  string  Hope  sat  ab- 
sorbed in  its  sweet  sound,  determined  thus  to  shut 
out  and  become  dead  to  the  reign  of  ruin  around. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  situation  to-day.  The 
harp  of  Hope  has  many  strings.  One  is  philosophy. 
Materialism  is  dead  among  speculative  thinkers,  in 
very  large  measure.  Haeckel  is  a  voice  crying  in  a 
wilderness  to  his  idealistic  and  spiritualistic  philosoph- 
ical contemporaries  without  a  repentant  sinner  to  bap- 
tize in  the  name  of  his  Monistic  Messiah,  Matter. 

Science  also  adds  a  string  to  the  harp  of  Hope. 
She  does  not  dogmatize  as  formerly  about  things  be- 
yond her  realm.  She  has  already  tunnelled  through 
Nature,  up  close  beneath  the  gates  of  the  eternal  city. 
The  world  of  science  has  no  meaning  without  God. 
The  city  of  Nature  coming  up  from  below  is  now  seen 
to  be  but  a  suburb  of  the  city  of  God  coming  down 
from  above. 

There  are  other  strings  to  the  harp  of  Hope  in  the 
social  and  religious  forces  of  the  times.  A  sense  of 
right  and  justice  is  once  more  conquering  its  way  into 
our  thinking.  There  are  still  heroes  in  public  and 
political  life  who  spurn  the  muck-rake  and  the  pig- 
sty of  greed  and  graft.  The  human  spirit  is  still  capa- 
ble of  moral  indignation  against  wrong.  There  yet 
remain  prophets  in  the  land,  men  of  ardent  spirits 
who  are  stung  into  action  by  the  touch  of  evil. 

Now  I  assert  that  with  these  forces  at  work  he 


124  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

that  putteth  his  hand  to  the  plough  has  much  to  hearten 
and  encourage  him.  No  land  is  given  over  to  sordid- 
ness  with  these  forces  actively  at  work.  They  pro- 
claim eloquently  that  God  has  put  His  hand  to  the 
plough,  and  that  harnessed  to  the  plough  of  our  human 
endeavour  are  the  colossal  energies  of  the  universe. 
The  tides  and  the  stars  are  on  our  side,  and  the  angels 
of  the  divine  decrees  protect  the  harvest  field  of  our 
effort  from  the  ravages  of  man  and  beast  and  wind 
and  weather. 

HI.  We  come  to  our  third  topic :  The  plough  is  the 
challenge  to  manhood's  eternal  forward  look.  "He 
who  putteth  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  looketh  back 
is  not  fit."  The  echo  of  the  eternal  is  in  these  words. 
Christ  is  here  appealing  to  the  love  of  the  eternal  in 
the  human  spirit.  Man  never  completes  his  tasks.  It 
is  his  peculiarity  that  he  is  never  content.  He  sees 
a  vision  in  the  marble.  He  executes  it  as  best  he  may, 
and  then  destroys  his  work  and  begins  again. 

The  power  of  recovery  is  a  fine  test  of  character. 
Chicago  with  its  fire ;  Charleston  with  its  earthquake ; 
Galveston  with  its  flood ;  Baltimore  with  its  conflagra- 
tion, and  San  Francisco  with  its  earthquake  and  fire — 
all  these  calamities  looked  at  on  one  side  seem  to 
demonstrate  the  futility  of  all  human  endeavour. 
Properly  understood  they  are  God's  challenge  to  man. 
The  manhood  of  tenderness  and  love  that  responds 
to  the  need  and  sends  swift  aid;  the  manhood  and 
womanhood  of  endurance  that  survives  with  good 
cheer  the  awful  cataclysm ;  the  manhood  of  faith  that 
believes  in  spite  of  appearances ;  and  the  manhood  of 
strength  that  recovers  poise  and  purpose  and  builds 
again. 

The  eternally  forward  look.    Yes,  this  is  the  human 


CHRIST'S  CHALLENGE  TO  MANHOOD    125 

look,  this  is  man's  destiny.  Man's  task  was  never 
done,  and  thank  God  it  never  will  be  done.  Man 
despises  what  he  has  conquered,  and  that  is  why  Christ 
is  his  eternal  goal.    He  can  never  be  transcended. 

The  ploughshare  pierces  through  time  into  eternity, 
and  the  widening  horizon  of  man's  destiny  will  con- 
front him  for  ever.  Jesus  the  goal  will  eternally  lead 
the  way  to  new  fields.  "I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you,"  is  eternally  true  of  Him.  And  this  means  that 
heaven  will  be  a  place  for  work  as  well  as  earth. 
Only  the  earthly  loafer  desires  that  heaven  shall  be  a 
loafing  place. 

All  this  of  course  implies  the  greatness  of  God  and 
His  universe  and  the  expansive  capacity  of  man.  There 
has  been  much  speculation  as  to  where  heaven  is.  Is 
it  to  be  this  planet?  Or  a  distant  star  or  constellation? 
Perhaps  both  views  are  correct  and  the  universe  will 
be  our  sphere.  The  freedom  of  the  universe  will  be 
ours,  it  may  be,  and  the  questions  raised  by  our  science 
and  our  philosophy  in  time  will  find  progressive  solu- 
tion in  eternity.  This  little  planet  is  simply  God's 
training  ground  for  us,  an  eagle's  nest  on  a  brow  of 
one  of  the  cliffs  of  eternity,  where  we,  the  young 
eagles,  are  for  a  time  secure,  and  whence  we  launch 
and  try  our  wings.  Our  eagle  nature  demands  to 
range  and  soar;  our  eagle  eye  makes  bold  to  look 
away  into  the  sun  itself  for  inspiration,  and  dares  to 
make  the  plunge  through  boundless  space. 

This  is  Christ's  challenge  to  the  human  spirit.  His 
appeal  to  manhood.  In  the  light  of  His  challenge  to 
the  eternally  forward  look,  the  blindness  and  folly 
and  sin  of  limiting  the  vision  to  time  and  space,  to  a 
mere  earthly  career  become  apparent. 


XII 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING  AS  SEEN 
IN  THE  LIFE  OF  GEN.  R.  E.  LEE 

Ephesians  4:  i — "Walk  worthy  of  your  calling." 
Romans  i :  7 — "Called  to  be  saints." 

THIS  the  birthday  of  R.  E.  Lee,  one  of  the 
greatest,  noblest  and  purest  of  Americans,  I 
follow  Scripture  example  in  using  the  high 
character  of  a  saintly  man  to  impress  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel. 

Lee's  character  appeals  to  men  of  the  North  as 
well  as  the  South,  just  as  Southerners  have  come  to 
admire  and  love  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
I  am  sorry  for  the  moral  blindness  of  any  Southerner 
who  cannot  see  virtue  or  excellence  in  the  great  men 
of  the  North,  and  I  am  equally  sorry  for  the  blindness 
of  any  Northerner  who  can  see  no  beauty,  no  virtue 
in  the  heroes  of  the  Confederacy.  To  ask  the  question 
whether  Lee's  statue  is  worthy  of  a  place  by  the  side 
of  the  great  leaders  of  the  North  is,  to  me,  like  asking 
whether  Arcturus  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  same 
firmament  with  Aldebaran,  whether  Orion  brings  re- 
proach to  the  Pleiades,  and  whether  the  North  Star  is 
tarnished  because  in  the  same  heavens  glows  the  South- 
ern Cross. 

The  two  texts  suggest  the  relations  between  char- 
acter and  calling.  These  should  match  each  other. 
Character  is  the  voice  that  sings  the  song;  calling  is 

126 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING    127 

the  accompaniment  on  the  instrument.  Every  man 
should  learn  to  combine  the  two  in  a  beautiful  har- 
mony. Christ  came  to  teach  men  a  song,  and  to  set 
men  a  task.  It  is  when  you  learn  to  sing  with  your 
hand  and  work  with  your  song  that  you  successfully 
unite  the  two. 

The  following  things  are  necessary  in  order  that 
calling  may  match  character  and  character  adorn  call- 
ing These  things  I  am  about  to  name  were  fulfilled 
in  the  life  of  Abraham,  and  David,  of  Peter,  of  John 
and  Paul,  of  Alfred  the  Great,  George  Washington, 
and  R.  E.  Lee.  I  state  these  qualities  in  the  form  of 
practical  admonitions  for  ourselves. 

(i)  Fall  into  God's  plan  for  you.  As  a  picture 
fits  a  frame,  as  a  bird  fits  its  nest,  as  a  swan  fits  the 
lake  on  which  it  swims,  or  as  the  lake  its  bed,  or  a 
planet  slips  along  its  appointed  orbit,  so  the  greatly 
successful  life  fits  into  God's  plan  for  it.  It  is  vain 
to  resist  God.  Obedience  is  the  first  law  of  our  being. 
Lee  was  a  great  example  of  obedience  to  God's  law  for 
his  life.  No  man  obeys  perfectly.  Lee  was  not  per- 
fect. But  in  its  great  outline  and  onward  sweep  his 
career  obeyed  a  divine  impulse. 

(2)  Believe  with  all  your  heart  that  you  can  fulfil 
your  calling  and  also  please  God.  It  is  a  fatal  mistake 
to  imagine  that  religion  and  practical  life  are  incom- 
patible. A  young  man  said  to  me,  "No  man  can  sell 
dry  goods  and  also  be  a  Christian."  He  was  mis- 
taken. Every  human  life  can  obey  two  laws,  the  law 
of  earthly  duty  and  of  obedience  to  God.  The  mag- 
netic needle  obeys  the  law  of  the  ship.  For  when 
the  ship  changes  its  course,  the  needle  turns  on  its 
axis.  Otherwise  it  would  be  useless.  But  the  needle 
also  obeys  the  law  of  the  electric  current.     For  in 


128  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

all  its  turning  on  its  pivot,  it  keeps  pointing  steadily 
to  the  pole.  Without  this  also  it  would  be  useless. 
The  earth  rotates  on  its  axis.  Otherwise  one  hemis- 
phere would  freeze  and  the  other  perish  of  heat.  But 
the  earth  also  revolves  around  the  sun,  else  it  would 
soon  be  dashed  to  destruction  in  its  wanderings 
through  space.  Lee's  career  rotated  and  revolved.  It 
swung  on  its  axis  and  served  men.  It  pointed  ever 
to  the  pole  of  duty.  Prayer  was  real  to  him  as  bread. 
Faith  was  as  vital  a  process  as  breathing. 

(3)  Accept  the  conditions  of  your  life  with  cheer- 
fulness. This  is  the  meaning  of  the  "yoke"  of  Christ ; 
"Take  my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me,"  is  His 
command.  It  was  a  master  stroke  of  character  for 
Lee  to  rise  above  the  wreck  of  his  fortunes  into  the 
serenity  and  triumph  of  his  last  days.  But  his  trained 
and  disciplined  spirit  was  equal  to  the  task. 

(4)  Do  with  your  might  what  your  hands  find  to 
do.  This  was  a  conspicuous  trait  in  Lee.  "This  one 
thing  I  do,"  was  the  law  of  his  activity,  whether  as 
young  soldier  in  Mexico,  or  as  Commander  of  the 
Confederate  forces,  or  as  president  of  Washington 
College.  Every  ounce  of  his  being  went  to  every  great 
task.  He  knew  no  half-hearted  service.  "A  whole 
man  to  one  thing  at  a  time,"  was  his  ideal  of  service. 

(5)  Adorn  your  calling  by  Christian  character. 
This  is  the  summary  of  Lee's  life.  A  man  can  use  call- 
ing to  degrade  character,  or  use  character  to  glorify 
calling.  A  man's  calling  is  like  a  ladder.  On  it  he 
can  climb  down  or  up.  By  our  calling  we  should  get 
on  in  the  world,  but  by  our  character  we  should  get 
above  the  world.  We  should  get  on,  but  certainly  we 
should  get  up. 

Lee's  character  was  not  stained  by  contact  with 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING     129 

corruption.  There  is  a  certain  white  flower  which 
grows  in  the  shaft  of  the  coal  mine.  It  is  covered 
with  an  enamel  which  enables  it  to  shed  the  coal  dust 
which  constantly  falls  upon  it,  itself  remaining  white 
and  clean.  Lee's  character  had  such  an  enamel.  The 
inspiration  of  his  life  was  from  above,  not  below. 
The  impulses  to  action  were  from  within,  not  without. 
The  ideal  of  his  life  was  future,  and  not  past.  "He 
looked  up  and  not  down;  out  and  not  in;  forward 
and  not  backward,  and  it  was  the  law  of  his  life  to 
lend  a  hand." 

Every  man  is  called  to  be  a  saint.  A  saint  is  not 
a  glorified  being  in  heaven,  nor  a  bloodless  anchorite 
living  on  a  dry  crust  in  a  cavern,  nor  an  official  wear- 
ing ecclesiastical  robes,  A  saint  is  a  man  set  apart 
to  duty,  consecrated  to  God  and  right,  grappling  with 
his  foes,  doing  his  work,  enduring  hardship,  climbing 
the  rugged  hill  of  manhood  with  the  eye  fixed  on  an 
eternal  goal. 

We  may  now  glance  at  a  few  traits  of  Lee's  char- 
acter with  which  he  adorned  his  calling.  I  am  not 
dealing  with  Lee  as  a  soldier,  but  as  a  man  and  a 
Christian.  His  courage  I  need  not  dwell  upon.  His 
magnanimity  is  beyond  all  question.  His  lofty  idealism 
breathes  through  all  his  letters,  in  his  hours  of  sor- 
row, in  his  conduct  in  private  life,  and  in  his  military 
papers.    A  few  things  I  name  more  in  detail. 

The  first  is  his  self-restraint.  It  appears  in  the  quiet 
poise  and  balance  always  manifest  in  his  bearing; 
in  the  absence  of  false  pride  or  the  spirit  of  boasting 
in  the  hour  of  victory;  in  his  special  orders  to  the 
soldiers  on  the  famous  Gettysburg  march  against  law- 
lessness and  destruction  of  property  in  the  enemy's 
country,  when  he  might  have  retaliated  on  the  Penn- 


130  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

S34vanians  for  ravages  committed  by  some  Northern 
armies  in  the  South.  It  is  seen  in  the  absence  of 
bitterness  and  the  sweetness  of  his  spirit  in  defeat ; 
in  the  counsel  which  he  gave  at  the  surrender,  urging 
all  Southerners  to  accept  the  tragic  issue  of  the  war 
in  the  spirit  of  obedience  to  the  decree  of  Providence ; 
and  in  his  counsel  against  guerrilla  warfare,  which 
might  have  been  continued  indefinitely  by  the  South- 
ern soldiers.  It  is  seen  in  the  quiet  self-respect  and 
dignity  which  marked  his  conduct  throughout  the 
period  after  the  war,  when,  denied  the  privilege  of 
citizenship,  he  remained  a  prisoner  of  war  on  parole 
until  his  death.  This  lofty  soul  seemed  to  be  gazing 
forever  upon  some  fixed  star  out  of  the  sight  of  or- 
dinary men  whose  rays  were  so  bright  and  steadfast 
and  whose  position  in  the  sky  was  so  fixed  and  un- 
changeable that  he  was  brought  under  its  mystic  power 
and  made  to  share  its  steadfastness  and  partake  of  its 
beauty. 

I  name  also  his  tenderness.  When,  in  the  midst 
of  the  busy  activities  of  war,  surrounded  by  officers 
awaiting  orders,  while  the  air  about  them  is  being 
punctured  with  the  enemy's  bullets,  he  is  seen  to  leave 
the  place  where  he  was  standing  and  tenderly  lift  an 
unfledged  sparrow  from  the  ground,  back  into  the 
nest  whence  it  had  fallen,  we  are  made  to  feel  that 
he  had  caught  the  spirit  of  Him  of  whom  it  was  said: 
"Not  a  sparrow  falleth  without  your  father  in  heaven." 

When  again,  as  president  of  Washington  College, 
upon  a  great  occasion,  he  is  seated  on  a  platform  along 
with  other  dignitaries  of  various  kinds,  and  orators 
are  addressing  a  great  assembly — when,  I  say,  under 
these  circumstances  we  see  a  little  lad,  unconscious  of 
time  and  place,  and  bold  in  the  confidence  of  love. 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING    131 

go  to  the  platform  and  climb  up  into  Lee's  lap  and 
lay  his  head  on  his  knee  and  fall  asleep  without  let 
or  hindrance  from  the  master  of  ceremonies,  and  really 
at  the  cost  of  some  discomfort  on  his  part,  we  are 
convinced  that  he  knows  the  secret  tenderness  and 
love  of  Him  who  said,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

A  student  boasted  that  the  president  could  not  make 
him  cry  as  he  did  the  other  fellows  who  were  called 
in  for  admonition  for  neglect  of  duty.  But  he  soon 
returned  blubbering  like  a  child,  saying,  "He  made 
me  ashamed  of  myself  when  he  told  me  of  my  mother 
and  her  love  and  sacrifice  for  me,  and  I  could  not 
stand  it." 

He  had  a  tender  heart.  H  he  ever  committed  serious 
errors  as  a  general  it  is  likely  that  they  were  due  to 
his  tender  regard  for  subordinates  in  command  who 
were  slow  to  obey  orders. 

"When  nature  was  shaping  him,  clay  was  not  granted 
For  making  so  full-sized  a  man  as  she  wanted. 
So  to  fill  out  her  model  a  little  she  spared 
From  some  finer  grained  stuff  for  a  woman  prepared, 
And  she  could  not  have  hit  a  more  excellent  plan 
For  making  him  fully  and  perfectly  man." 

The  one  word  writ  large  in  letters  of  fire  all  over 
his  life  was  the  great  word — duty.  The  passion  to 
do  the  right  thing  and  not  the  wrong  thing  is  what 
made  him  great.  "In  all  the  universe  there  is  nothing 
great  but  man,  and  in  man  there  is  nothing  great  but 
mind,"  is  a  memorable  saying.  But  the  greatest  thing 
in  mind  is  conscience.  Lee  had  an  inviolable  con- 
science.   The  sense  of  duty  swayed  his  being  in  sov- 


132  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

ereign  power.  As  a  young  man  in  the  Mexican  war 
we  see  him  drudging  at  maps  and  plans  of  battle  at 
times  when  other  young  officers  were  enjoying  them- 
selves, and  refusing  to  join  them  until  his  task  was 
done — from  a  sense  of  duty.  He  deplored  the  Civil 
War  and  said  if  he  owned  all  the  slaves  he  would  set 
them  free  in  order  to  avoid  the  conflict,  and  then 
buckled  on  the  sword  and  went  to  war — from  a  sense 
of  duty.  He  refused  to  give  countenance  to  a  plan 
to  promote  his  own  son  to  a  post  for  which  he  was 
unfit — from  a  sense  of  duty.  From  a  sense  of  duty 
he  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  overtures  to  become  governor 
of  Virginia,  asserting  his  lack  of  confidence  in  "mili- 
tary statesmen"  as  well  as  "political  generals."  From 
a  sense  of  duty,  at  the  end  of  the  war,  he  bowed  to 
God's  will  and  became  a  valiant  moral  hero  in  pro- 
moting peace,  as  he  had  been  a  military  hero  in  pro- 
moting war.  From  a  sense  of  duty  he  accepted 
the  presidency  of  a  College  on  a  pitiably  small 
salary  when  offers  of  positions  paying  from  ten 
thousand  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  annum  were 
open  to  him. 

This  splendid  idealism  is  none  too  common  in  pub- 
lic life  to-day.  Of  course  there  are  many  men  who  are 
swayed  by  great  ideals,  unpurchasable,  uncompromis- 
ing men.  But  there  are  also  too  many  who  are  quick  to 
seize  the  main  chance,  who  lean  to  the  side  of  self 
when  in  doubt.  Happy  is  the  man  who,  like  Lee,  had 
few  moral  struggles  because  his  moral  ideals  were  so 
clean  and  whose  will  was  so  strong.  Happy  is  the 
man  who  is  quick  to  see  and  quick  to  shun  the  wrong 
and  equally  quick  to  see  and  do  the  right. 

This  man's  unselfishness  reads  almost  like  a  ro- 
mance in  an  age  when  greed  and  grasping  are  so  com- 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING    133 

mon.  Think  of  it,  an  English  estate  was  offered  him 
and  an  income  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  per  year. 
Pride  would  forbid  acceptance  of  this,  of  course.  But 
ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  was  offered  for  the  use 
of  his  name  by  an  Insurance  Company.  He  indig- 
nantly inquired  if  they  thought  his  name  and  influence 
could  be  bought  at  any  price.  He  declined  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  per  year  when  offered  him  to  become  the 
head  of  a  business  concern. 

Hon.  B.  H.  Hill  of  Georgia  was  not  wrong  when 
he  said  in  an  address:  "When  the  future  historian 
comes  to  survey  the  character  of  Lee,  he  will  find  it 
rising  like  a  huge  mountain  above  the  undulating 
plain  of  humanity,  and  he  will  have  to  lift  his  eyes 
towards  heaven  to  catch  its  summit.  He  possessed 
every  virtue  of  the  great  commander  without  treach- 
ery ;  a  private  citizen  without  wrong ;  a  neighbour  with- 
out reproach;  a  Christian  without  hypocrisy;  a  man 
without  guile.  He  was  a  Caesar  without  his  ambition ; 
a  Frederick  without  his  tyranny;  a  Napoleon  without 
his  selfishness,  and  a  Washington  without  his  reward. 
He  was  obedient  to  authority  as  a  servant  and  loyal 
in  authority  as  a  true  King.  He  was  gentle  as  a 
woman  in  life ;  modest  and  pure  as  a  virgin  in  thought ; 
watchful  as  a  Roman  vestal  in  duty ;  submissive  to  law 
as  Socrates,  and  grand  in  battle  as  Achilles."  (Life 
of  Lee  by  J.  W.  Jones,  p.  396.) 

When  we  look  at  the  grand  old  man  at  the  close 
of  the  war  and  in  his  last  years,  there  is  something 
infinitely  pathetic  in  his  figure.  It  is  set  against  the 
background  of  a  ruined  South  which  stretches  away 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  Gulf,  blackened  by  the  cin- 
ders of  extinct  homes  and  cities,  and  presenting  every- 
where a  scene  of  desolation  and  of  death.    Yet  when 


134  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

we  look  again  there  is  something  unspeakably  grand 
in  that  figure.  His  last  years  are  not  like  those  of  a 
defeated  man;  but  like  those  of  a  victor.  Moral 
triumph  sits  upon  his  brow  and  moral  grandeur  shines 
at  every  point.  He  rides  in  a  golden  chariot  whose 
name  is  duty.  Its  wheels  are  truth  and  righteousness. 
The  steeds  which  draw  it  are  love  to  God  and  love 
to  man.  The  weapons  of  his  warfare  are  faith  and 
integrity.  He  is  driving,  ever  driving  with  his  face 
towards  the  sunrise.  The  light  of  the  eternal  dawn  is 
upon  his  brow.  When  the  chariot  wheels  stopped,  and 
the  warrior  laid  down  his  lance  and  folded  his  hands 
in  death,  no  doubt  angels  were  waiting  and  bore  him 
to  the  presence  chamber  of  the  King  on  high  whom 
he  had  loved  and  served  so  well. 

Trust  God  and  do  right  is  the  supreme  lesson  of 
Lee's  life.  The  secret  of  victory  in  our  life  as  a  whole, 
whatever  be  the  defeats  along  the  way,  is  to  be  found 
in  taking  God  into  our  lives  and  making  it  our  supreme 
calling  to  serve  Him.  Thus  we  shall  conquer  every 
foe,  including  the  last  enemy,  death. 

"Ere  we  do  our  heavenly  best,  a  God  must  mingle  in 
the  game, 

There  may  be  those  about  us  whom  we  neither  know 
nor  name, 

Felt  within  us  as  ourselves,  the  powers  of  good,  the 
powers  of  ill, 

Strewing  balm  or  shedding  poison  in  the  fountains  of 
the  will. 

Follow  light  and  do  the  right,  for  man  can  half  con- 
trol his  doom. 

Till  you  see  the  deathless  angel  seated  in  the  vacant 
tomb." 


CHARACTER  ADORNING  CALLING     135 

In  Newton  Centre,  Massachusetts,  in  the  tower  of 
the  church  of  which  I  was  once  pastor,  is  a  beautiful 
chime  of  bells.  The  Sabbath  mornings  are  so  quiet 
its  sweet  notes  can  be  heard  everywhere  as  they  ring 
in  the  worship  with  "Nearer  my  God  to  thee,"  or 
other  familiar  tune.  Often  I  have  caught  myself,  and 
others  likewise,  joining  unconsciously  and  in  an  under- 
tone, humming  or  singing  "Nearer  my  God  to  thee" 
with  the  chime.  Lee's  life  was  such  a  chime,  a  har- 
mony, a  benediction,  drawing  men  nearer  to  his  God. 
When  he  died  it  was  the  ceasing  of  a  silver  chime, 
but  its  echoes  will  not  die  until  human  influence  ceases 
to  be  a  quality  upon  earth. 


XIII 

ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER 

Romans  8 :  28 — "All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  called  accord- 
ing to  his  purpose." 

THIS  text  is  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most 
difficult  to  accept,  one  of  the  most  astonishing, 
one  of  the  most  comforting  and  glorious  in 
the  Bible.  It  is  too  great  to  be  unfolded  in  the  time 
allotted  to  a  sermon.  It  requires  a  lifetime  to  begin 
to  grasp  its  meaning.  We  may  only  touch  upon  a  few 
of  its  many  phases.  The  text  really  analyzes  itself, 
and  falls  into  natural  divisions.  I,  with  many  others 
who  have  employed  it  as  a  text,  will  let  it  divide  itself. 

I.  Let  us  sum  up  its  meaning  then  in  a  number  of 
general  statements. 

First,  the  universe  is  active,  "All  things  work." 

Second,  the  universe  is  active  with  a  purpose,  "All 
things  work  together."  They  co-operate  towards  a 
common  end. 

Third,  the  universe  is  moral,  "All  things  work 
together  for  good." 

Fourth,  the  universe  is  religious,  a  God  is  behind 
the  movement.  "All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God." 

Fifth,  the  effect  of  the  action  of  the  universe  upon 
us  is  determined  by  our  attitude  towards  God,  whether 
we  love  Him  or  not. 

136 


ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER  137 

Now  let  us  go  back  over  some  of  these  statements 
and  enlarge  them  a  little. 

The  universe  is  active.  "All  things  work."  The 
smallest  things  work.  The  atoms  work.  They  join 
hands  with  each  other  to  form  plants  and  crystals  and 
rocks  and  planets.  The  grain  of  sand  works ;  it  binds 
its  neighbours  to  it  by  the  attractive  power  of  gravita- 
tion. It  coheres  within  by  inherent  force.  Its  mass 
and  weight,  minute  as  it  is,  affects  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  the  earth  on  which  it  rests.  The  dewdrop  works. 
It  condenses  out  the  moisture  of  the  atmosphere  and 
evaporates  again;  but  meantime  it  has  whispered  a 
message  of  life  to  the  struggling  plant  and  poured 
resurrection  power  into  dying  vegetation. 

All  things  work.  There  is  no  sound  of  hammer  or 
saw,  there  is  no  clatter  of  machinery  anywhere,  but 
in  our  forests  in  these  spring  days  millions  of  tons  of 
matter  are  being  lifted  up  through  the  roots  into  trees 
and  flowers. 

Electricity  works  in  the  clouds  to  produce  rain  and 
purify  the  atmosphere.  It  works  in  the  magnetic  cur- 
rent around  the  earth  as  shown  by  the  magnetic  needle. 
It  works  in  the  growth  of  plants  and  in  human  bodies. 

Sunlight  works.  It  comes  ninety  million  miles  for 
the  purpose.  It  imparts  its  energy  to  every  living 
thing.  It  pours  like  a  flood  into  your  gardens  and 
fields.  It  broods  over  the  planted  seed  like  a  mother 
bird  brooding  over  her  nest  and  warming  her  eggs 
into  life.  It  paints  your  roses  and  geraniums,  and 
gilds  with  glory  your  evening  clouds. 

The  great  things  also  work,  suns  and  satellites  and 
planets.  They  slip,  they  glide  along  their  orbits  a 
million  miles  a  day.  They  rotate  with  inconceivable 
rapidity  on  their  axes  and  in  their  wondrous,  com- 


138  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

plex,  interlaced  and  intertwined  orbits  and  movements, 
they  are  spread  through  the  universe  everywhere. 

No  doubt  it  was  because  Jesus  saw  this  marvellous 
vision  of  energy  and  power  that  He  so  fully  appreci- 
ated the  activity  of  His  Father  when  He  said,  "My 
father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  No  wonder  some 
observers  of  nature  incline  to  the  view  that  all  things 
are  just  concentrated  forms  of  energy.  No  wonder 
Jesus  said,  regarding  His  earthly  life,  "We  must  work 
the  works  of  him  that  sent  me,  while  it  is  day.  The 
night  Cometh  when  no  man  can  work."  Each  of  us 
may  well  say  the  day  of  life  is  short.  We  must  do 
our  work  faithfully  and  well. 

"Time  worketh,  let  me  work  too, 
Time  undoeth,  O  let  me  do. 
As  busy  as  Time,  my  task  I'd  ply 
Till  I  rest  the  rest  of  eternity." 

Now  the  difficulty  which  confronts  us  is  not  so 
much  to  believe  that  all  things  work.  This  is  evident 
in  large  measure  to  our  senses.  It  is  difficult  for  us 
to  understand  how  all  things  work  together,  when 
we  see  the  clash  and  conflict  of  life,  and  the  power 
of  sin  in  the  world.  It  is  hard  for  us  to  see  how  all 
things  work  together  for  good,  and  when  we  think 
of  our  own  pain  and  sorrow  and  struggle  and  disap- 
pointment, our  temptations  and  our  losses  and  our 
sins,  it  is  not  easy  for  us  to  accept  the  view  that  all 
things  work  together  for  our  good. 

II.  The  source  of  our  confusion.  Our  confusion 
arises  chiefly  from  false  assumptions  regarding  life. 
Our  difficulties  nearly  all  grow  out  of  fallacies  re- 
garding ourselves  or  God.  Let  us  observe  a  few  of 
those  fallacies. 


ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER   139 

First,  we  may  assume  falsely  that  things  are  work- 
ing for  good  only  when  they  are  working  for  our 
comfort  and  earthly  happiness.  This  is  the  chief  fal- 
lacy in  most  lives  that  are  perplexed  and  baffled  by 
their  earthly  circumstances. 

A  mediaeval  legend  tells  of  a  hermit  and  angel  in 
human  form  travelling  together.  The  angel  had  told 
the  hermit  the  secret  of  his  exalted  rank  and  nature. 
Having  been  hospitably  entertained  in  a  humble  home, 
the  angel  arose  and  strangled  the  infant  son  of  the 
parents  in  the  home.  The  hermit  thought  this  must 
be  a  devil  and  not  an  angel.  Entertained  the  next 
night,  the  angel  stole  a  superb  golden  cup  from  which 
the  host  drank  wine.  Crossing  a  bridge,  the  angel 
asked  a  pilgrim  the  way  to  the  next  town,  and  pushed 
him  into  the  river  to  drown.  The  next  night  the  angel 
was  sent  to  the  pig-sty  to  sleep  and  gave  the  golden 
goblet  the  next  morning  to  the  rude  host. 

"Get  thee  gone,"  said  the  hermit,  "thou  art  no  angel. 
Thou  requitest  good  with  evil,  and  evil  with  good." 

"Listen,  short-sighted  mortal,"  said  the  angel. 
"The  infant  had  made  the  father  covetous,  and  would 
have  resulted  in  the  loss  of  his  soul.  The  owner  of 
the  goblet  was  fast  becoming  debauched  by  excesses 
and  he  will  mend  his  ways.  The  pilgrim  was  about 
to  commit  mortal  sin.  As  for  the  wretch  who  drove 
God's  children  from  his  door,  the  bauble  will  please 
him  for  a  time,  but  he  will  burn  in  hell." 

This,  of  course,  is  a  mere  legend,  but  in  it  is  em- 
bedded a  great  truth.  Many  of  the  mysteries  of  life 
would  be  solved,  if  we  could  catch  the  ear  of  the 
angel,  or  rather,  leaving  the  figure  of  speech,  if  we 
could  know  the  end  which  God  is  bringing  to  pass 
for  us. 


140  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

We  may  falsely  assume  that  trouble  is  merely  a  con- 
sumer and  destroyer  in  our  lives.  But  this  is  not  the 
true  view.  Sorrow  and  trouble  may  be  a  reaping  of 
what  we  have  sown,  but  it  may  be  a  sowing  of  what 
we  shall  reap.  Tribulation  is  a  producer,  not  a  con- 
sumer in  our  spiritual  lives,  if  we  have  faith,  if  we 
love  God.  "Tribulation  worketh  patience;  and  pa- 
tience experience;  and  experience,  hope:  And  hope 
maketh  not  ashamed ;  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given 
unto  us." 

"He  that  goeth  forth  with  weeping, 
Bearing  precious  seed  in  love, 
Never  tiring,  never  sleeping, 
Findeth  mercy  from  above. 

"Sow  thy  seed,  be  never  weary. 
Let  no  fears  thy  soul  annoy; 
Be  the  prospect  ne'er  so  dreary. 
Thou  shalt  reap  the  fruits  of  joy." 

We  may  falsely  assume  that  God  cannot  over-rule 
sin  and  Satan  and  make  them  execute  His  purposes. 
In  the  old  cotton  gin  of  the  South  a  horse  was  hitched 
to  a  long  pole  which  was  fixed  at  the  other  end  in 
a  heavy  upright  revolving  beam,  and  by  walking  round 
and  round  in  a  circle  the  horse  was  made  to  turn 
the  gin  overhead  and  separate  the  lint  from  the  seed 
of  the  cotton.  The  horse  was  all  unconscious  of  what 
he  did.  Even  so  sin  and  Satan  may  work  for  the 
saints  of  God.  Their  efforts  through  God's  over- 
ruling providence  may  become  means  for  advancing 
our  welfare. 

We  may  falsely  assume  that  pain  and  death  are  only 


ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER   141 

evils.  Here  again  we  need  to  remember  how  God 
converts  these  into  purifying  agencies  if  they  are 
received  in  faith. 

We  may  assume  that  our  Hves  are  isolated  from 
others  whereas  they  are  interlaced  at  every  point  with 
the  human  lives  about  us.  Much  of  our  pain  and  sor- 
row are  vicarious.  We  suffer  because  of  others  and 
with  others.  We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  human  suf- 
fering so  long  as  we  live  in  this  world.  We  cannot 
close  our  ears  to  the  cry  of  distress.  Great  chivalrous 
movements  are  in  progress  in  which  we  must  take 
part,  or  else  the  universe  is  against  us  and  not  for  us. 
I  do  not  refer  to  money-making  enterprises,  but  to 
great  movements  to  enlighten  and  make  better,  move- 
ments to  regenerate  and  redeem.  These  represent  the 
Key  to  history.  These  indicate  the  direction  of  God's 
march.  The  man  and  woman  who  reads  these  signs 
of  the  times,  and  who  join  in  this  new  chivalry,  are 
the  ones  for  whom  "All  things  work  together  for 
good."  We  cannot,  except  at  our  peril,  lead  a  selfish, 
isolated  life. 

Again,  we  may  falsely  assume  a  limited  time  plat- 
form for  the  development  of  our  characters,  while 
God  is  working  on  an  eternal  platform.  God  has 
planned  our  destinies  on  a  scale  which  will  admit  of  the 
play  of  eternal  forces  and  eternal  opportunity  for  it. 

The  thought  of  mankind  is  slowly  coming  to  this 
Bible  view  of  the  world.  History,  and  political  science, 
and  physical  science,  and  all  the  other  phases  of  human 
thought  converge  upon  this  great  clue  to  the  world's 
meaning.  Consider  for  a  moment  how  this  great 
truth  of  a  divine  purpose  of  good  towards  men  has 
made  progress  in  human  thought. 

In  politics  men  have  passed  from  the  idea  of  gov- 


142  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

ernment  for  the  sole  benefit  of  the  governor,  to  the 
higher  idea  of  government  for  the  benefit  of  the 
governed. 

We  have  passed  from  the  idea  of  the  world  as  the 
centre  around  v^hich  the  universe  revolves,  to  the 
grander  idea  of  the  earth  as  a  tiny  mite  in  space,  re- 
volving around  the  sun,  and  the  sun  revolving  around 
some  other  centre,  and  so  on  out  into  magnitudes 
beyond  the  power  of  human  imagination  to  grasp  or 
conceive. 

We  have  passed  from  the  idea  of  man  as  the  play- 
thing of  kings  and  commanders,  to  be  slaughtered  or 
enslaved  according  to  his  whim;  to  the  sublime  con- 
ception of  man  as  infinitely  precious  in  God's  sight; 
and  from  the  idea  of  one  nation  as  the  chosen  people 
and  special  favourites  of  heaven,  to  the  glorious  truth 
that  all  men  are  dear  to  His  heart. 

We  have  passed  from  the  idea  of  the  world  of 
nature  as  a  place  where  the  pitiless  and  ruthless  power 
of  law  and  force  and  energy  sweeps  human  beings 
to  destruction,  where  there  is  no  eye  to  pity  and  no 
arm  to  save;  to  the  grander  conception  of  the  world 
as  our  Father's  house  in  which  love  presides  and  "not 
a  sparrow  falleth  without  Him." 

We  are  passing  from  the  idea  that  this  life  is  merely 
a  place  for  acquiring  food  and  clothing  and  houses 
and  lands  and  the  enjoyment  of  a  few  brief  years  on 
earth,  up  to  the  nobler  view  that  this  world  is  but  a 
vestibule  to  an  endless  life. 

We  are  passing  from  the  false  view  that  life  here 
Is  just  an  opportunity  to  acquire  fame  or  honour  or 
wealth,  to  the  grander  view  that  life  with  all  it  yields 
of  joy,  or  woe,  Is  just  our  chance  of  learning  love, 
that  love  hath  been,  and  Is,  and  shall  be. 


ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER   143 

We  are  passing  upward  from  the  view  that  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  is  the  meaning  of  the  world,  to 
the  conception  that  that  meaning  is  the  redemption  of 
the  unfit;  that  true  greatness  is  in  serving,  not  in 
being  served;  that  the  true  aristocracy  is  not  that  of 
title,  or  learning,  or  official  position,  or  wealth,  but  of 
character. 

We  are  passing  from  the  idea  that  the  poor  and  the 
wretched  and  the  destitute  and  suffering  are  just  a 
hindrance  and  stumbling  block  to  our  ease  and  com- 
fort, up  to  the  nobler,  grander  idea  that  they  furnish 
us  our  best  opportunity  of  learning  love  and  of  achiev- 
ing character. 

Thus  we  are  learning  through  the  revelations  of 
science  and  philosophy  and  sociology,  and  through  all 
human  experience,  that  the  inspired  words  of  Paul 
are  true.  We  are  seeing  that  all  nature  and  all  history 
and  all  grace,  as  well,  are  against  the  unloving  and 
selfish,  against  those  who  seek  their  own,  against  the 
sinful.  All  things  work  together  to  crush  and  destroy 
the  man  whose  attitude  is  against  the  benevolent  pur- 
pose of  the  great  onward  movement  of  God.  But  all 
voices  join  in  a  chorus  of  confirmation  to  the  other 
truth  that  the  universe  is  for  us  if  we  love,  nature  is 
for  us,  grace  is  for  us,  history  is  for  us,  that  "All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God." 


XIV 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  MORALITY  IN  OUR 
PUBLIC  LIFE,  AND  ITS  MEANING 

Deut.  i6:  18-19 — "Judges  and  officers  shalt  thou 
make  thee  in  all  thy  gates  .  .  .  and  they  shall  judge 
the  people  with  just  judgment." 

THE  text  supplies  the  basic  principle  of  Jewish 
civilization.     It  supplies  the  corner  stone  of 
true   American    civilization,    viz.,    civic    and 
economic  justice. 

Two  facts  of  far-reaching  significance  are  manifest 
to  any  one  who  has  carefully  observed  American  pub- 
lic life  during  the  last  few  years.  One  fact  is  the 
reassertion  of  great  moral  principles  in  the  conduct 
of  public  affairs  and  the  new  momentum  acquired  by 
moral  movements. 

It  is  nothing  less  than  a  moral  revival  on  a  broad 
scale,  which  is  full  of  deep  meaning.  The  other  fact 
referred  to  is  the  rise,  along  with  the  revival  of  right- 
eousness, of  a  new  type  of  leader.  Once  more  men 
in  public  life  are  appealing  to  the  higher  things  in 
their  constituencies.  The  new  leader  is  not  less  am- 
bitious than  the  old,  but  more  scrupulous.  He  is  not 
less  skilful  and  adroit,  but  more  select  in  the  choice 
of  means. 

144 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  MORALITY      145 

Now,  these  men  and  these  movements  are  symptoms 
of  underlying  causes.  Behind  them  are  a  great  set 
of  ideals,  moral  principles  which  are  coming  into  play. 
These  I  will  next  indicate. 

First,  then,  this  moral  movement  means  a  revival 
from  the  morality  of  private  to  the  morality  of  public 
life.  One  distinction  is  passing  out  of  human  thought, 
I  hope,  forever,  and  that  is  that  a  man  can  claim  to 
be  moral  because  in  his  private  life  he  is  a  good  man, 
while  in  public  life  he  is  an  unscrupulous  villain. 
Another  distinction  is  passing  away  forever,  and  that 
is  that  a  leader  in  public  opinion  or  teacher  of  morals 
can  confine  his  deliverances  to  private  conduct  while 
winking  at  unrighteousness  in  public  life.  A  great 
preacher  of  the  gospel  who  was  faithful  to  his  duty 
in  instructing  his  congregation  in  the  moral  principles 
of  political  action  received  a  good  little  book  from  a 
very  simple-minded  devout  person.  On  the  book  were 
written  these  curious  words:  "There  are  no  politics 
in  heaven;  there  is  where  your  life  should  be;  sad, 
sad,  that  it  is  otherwise." 

"Now,"  said  the  preacher,  "that  was  very  kindly 
meant,  but  can  you  imagine  anything  more  absurd? 
You  might  as  well  write  to  the  chief  physician  in  one 
of  our  hospitals  and  say  to  him,  'There  are  no  hos- 
pitals in  heaven ;  there  is  where  your  heart  should  be ; 
sad,  sad,  that  it  is  otherwise.'  Or  to  the  president  of 
a  great  railroad,  'There  are  no  railways  in  heaven; 
there  is  where  your  heart  should  be;  sad,  sad,  that 
it  is  otherwise.'  I  should  not  wonder  if  the  good 
Christian  person  who  sent  me  this  admonition  some- 
times gathers  poor  people  together  and  gives  them 
tea  and  good  little  books;  and  I  might  write  to  her 
and  say,  'There  are  no  tea  meetings  and  good  little 


146  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

books  in  heaven ;  there  is  where  your  heart  should  be ; 
sad,  sad,  that  it  should  be  otherwise.'  " 

The  good  lady  was  right  in  her  assertions  about 
heaven.  There  are  no  politics  in  heaven,  it  is  true. 
There  are  also  no  crap  games  in  heaven,  and  no  graft- 
ers in  heaven,  and  no  saloons  in  heaven.  There  is  no 
evil  in  heaven.  The  reason  is  that  somebody  did  some 
hard  work  to  suppress  evil  on  earth. 

It  is,  in  the  second  place,  a  revival  from  the  morality 
of  expediency  to  the  morality  of  principle.  The  man 
of  expedients  without  moral  principle  asks  but  one 
question:  How  can  I  gain  my  object?  Success  at  any 
cost  is  the  law  of  his  being.  Success  is  the  only  God 
he  worships.  The  man  of  moral  principle  asks :  How 
can  I  gain  my  object  and  retain  my  character?  One 
conceives  of  life  as  a  shipwreck  and  every  man  grasp- 
ing for  what  is  in  reach,  a  plank,  a  spar,  or  oar  float- 
ing past.  The  other  conceives  life  as  a  voyage  in  a 
sound  ship  guided  by  compass  and  stars.  One  floats 
on  the  eddies  and  currents;  the  other  steers  a  pre- 
arranged course.  One  is  impelled  by  a  sense  of  danger^ 
or  greed  for  gain,  the  other  by  the  law  of  right.  One 
lands  wherever  the  tides  cast  him ;  the  other  keeps  the 
prow  pointing  to  the  haven  of  the  eternal  city  of  God. 

American  life  has  been  too  much  a  scramble  for 
the  prizes  of  our  physical  wealth.  We  have  gold  inines 
and  copper  mines  and  oil  fields  and  cane  fields  and 
timber  lands  and  fisheries  and  many  other  forms  of 
national  wealth.  Our  national  tree  has  been  laden 
with  these  rich  prizes,  and  we  have  been  like  boys 
devising  all  sorts  of  means  to  bring  them  down — clubs 
and  long  poles  and  climbing  irons — anything  to  get 
the  fruit  down  regardless  of  the  injury  to  the  tree, 
and  to  other  people  in  many  cases. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  MORALITY     147 

It  is  a  revival  from  the  morality  of  rights  to 
the  morality  of  duties.  This  is  a  vital  distinction 
often  ignored  in  our  modern  life.  We  are  coming  to 
recognize  it  and  apply  it.  It  is  the  Christian  law  of 
conduct.  I  recognize  the  morality  of  rights.  We 
must  often  contend  for  rights.  But  there  is  a  higher 
level  of  morals.  The  morality  of  rights  is  a  v^restling 
match.  The  morality  of  duties  is  a  friendly  confer- 
ence. The  morality  of  rights  develops  cunning  and  a 
certain  kind  of  endurance.  The  morality  of  duties 
develops  generosity,  nobility,  manhood.  The  morality 
of  duties  would  put  an  end  to  strikes  and  boycotts. 

It  is  a  revival  from  the  morality  of  property  to  the 
morality  of  persons.  Property  is  sacred  and  should  be 
protected.  Civilization  aims  to  safeguard  property. 
But  our  civilization  is  slowly  learning  that  a  man  is 
more  than  a  sheep,  that  human  life  is  above  material 
things  in  value.  Our  legislation  has  too  long  neglected 
the  interest  of  persons  in  its  overweening  regard  for 
property,  with  the  result  that  human  rights  are  often 
ruthlessly  sacrificed.  This  principle  now  coming  to  the 
front  in  our  civilization  means  that  the  safety  of  the 
railway  employe  and  passengers  is  of  greater  moment 
than  dividends  for  stockholders  in  railroads  secured 
through  neglect  of  that  safety.  It  means  that  the 
physical  well-being  of  people  who  drink  milk  is  to  be 
considered  above  the  profits  of  the  dairyman  who 
insists  on  keeping  tubercular  cows  or  the  butcher  who 
sells  diseased  meat.  It  means  that  the  welfare  of 
little  children  whose  lives  are  being  crushed  by  con- 
finement and  hard  work  in  great  factories  is  to  be 
considered  before  the  gains  of  those  who  employ  them. 

This  principle  means  that  the  welfare  of  our  boys 
and  the  peace  of  our  homes  and  our  city  are  of  far 


148  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

greater  importance  than  the  profits  of  saloon  keepers 
who  violate  the  law  by  keeping  open  on  Sundays. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  a  revival  from  the  morality 
of  brute  survival  to  the  morality  of  brotherhood.  A 
few  years  ago  the  survival  of  the  fittest  was  proclaimed 
as  the  one  law  of  human  progress  in  the  evolutionary 
sense.  Some  English  writers  opposed  public  educa- 
tion because  thus  the  state  pampered  and  coddled 
the  weak  who  should  be  made  to  struggle  and  per- 
mitted to  die  and  get  out  of  the  way.  A  brilliant 
German  writer  named  Nietzsche  has  put  this  into  a 
philosophy.  His  hero  is  the  Overman.  He  is  the 
survival  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Fitness  means 
power.  Fitness  means  cruelty.  The  Overman  is  simply  a 
giant.  He  knows  no  pity.  Modesty,  gentleness,  pa- 
tience, forbearance,  love — these  are  the  weak  and  ef- 
feminate virtues  which  Christianity  has  taught  the 
world. 

Christianity  comes  to  the  follower  of  Nietzsche  and 
speaks  another  word — a  word  at  once  as  soft  as  the 
dew  and  as  radiant  as  the  glory  of  the  stars ;  a  word 
which  has  magic  power  to  sheathe  the  sword  of 
slaughter  and  hush  the  guns  of  war ;  a  word  capable 
of  unfurling  the  white  banner  of  peace  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth ;  a  word  as  yet  but  slowly  adopted  in  the 
world's  vocabulary,  but  sure  to  conquer  its  place  and 
give  its  rich  and  beautiful  hues  to  all  human  lan- 
guage and  to  irradiate  all  human  experience.  It  is 
the  magic  word,  brotherhood. 

Now,  beyond  a  question  our  modern  life  has  de- 
veloped a  type  of  Overman  who  has  won  enormous 
power  over  his  fellows.  It  is  a  menace  to  all  that 
is  best  in  our  civilization,  except  when  as  power  it 
feels  its  responsibility.     We  need  not  be  surprised 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  MORALITY      149 

that  men  fear  the  result.  We  are  reminded  of  the 
story  of  Sindbad  the  Sailor.  In  one  of  his  marvellous 
voyages  Sindbad  came  to  an  island  where  there  was 
a  giant  tall  as  a  palm  tree,  who  had  only  one  eye  in 
the  centre  of  his  forehead,  whose  ears  were  like  the 
ears  of  an  elephant,  and  whose  mouth  was  as  deep 
as  that  of  a  horse.  This  giant  took  up  the  sailors 
from  the  shipwrecked  vessel  one  by  one  and  inspected 
them  as  you  might  inspect  so  many  partridges.  He 
selected  the  fattest  one  for  supper.  When  he  became 
hungry  again  he  ate  another  sailor.  Sindbad  himself 
escaped,  because  he  was  so  lean.  "Now,"  says  the 
evolutionist  of  Nietzsche's  school,  "Look  upon  this 
giant  and  admire !"  But  the  socialist  exclaims :  "Look 
upon  this  giant  and  beware  1" 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  fundamental  issue  in  mod- 
ern civilization.  How  can  we  convert  the  sinister 
forces  into  benevolent  forces?  How  can  we  instil 
the  ideals  of  stewardship  into  men  who  grasp  the  high 
places  of  earth,  in  business  and  in  politics?  How 
can  we  convert  the  giant  into  the  big  brother  ? 

The  programme  of  Christianity  is  both  religious  and 
moral.  It  puts  man  right  with  God,  and  then  it  aims 
to  put  man  right  with  his  fellowmen.  It  seeks  to 
impart  the  new  heart  first.  Then  it  seeks  to  make 
the  new  heart  a  social  force.  Men  have  waited  too 
long  to  recognize  the  tremendous  ethical  demands  of 
Christianity.  It  is  a  religion  of  moral  strenuosity  of 
the  highest  type.  The  moral  foundations  of  Christ's 
Kingdom  are  clearly  seen  in  the  Mosaic  and  in  other 
Old  Testament  teachings. 

Modern  Christians  need  to  catch  the  ancient  vision 
once  again,  that  grand  ideal  which  has  burned  in 
prophet  hearts  through  the  ages.    It  was  the  entranc- 


150  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

ing  vision  proclaimed  by  Jesus  Himself  and  which 
absorbed  His  thought  and  energy.  That  kingdom  was 
the  inspiration  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  who  lived 
with  the  vision  ever  in  his  thoughts  and  who  died  with 
the  prophecy  on  his  lips  that  it  was  coming,  surely 
coming.  In  his  rocky  prison  John  on  Patmos  looked 
across  the  stormy  sea  around  him  and  beheld  in  beau- 
tiful symbol  this  Kingdom  coming  down  from  heaven 
to  earth.  To  his  imagination  and  faith  it  took  a  most 
beautiful  form:  a  city  whose  builder  and  maker  was 
God.  A  strange  city  it  was,  not  rising  from  deep 
foundations  on  earth  upwards  towards  the  sky,  but 
a  city  descending  from  the  sky  to  earth.  It  was  a  city 
so  fair  and  beautiful  that  it  took  all  the  costly  things 
of  earth  to  symbolize  it. 

This  vision  of  the  heavenly  city  seems  a  remote 
thing  to  modern  Christians.  Sometimes  we  fail  to 
read  the  intensely  practical  message  it  conveys.  It  is 
the  great  closing  exhortation  and  command  of  Scrip- 
ture to  strenuous  moral  endeavour.  It  is  as  a  trumpet 
call  to  every  man  in  the  great  battle  for  righteousness. 

The  practical  question  for  each  of  us  is  how  we 
shall  perform  our  part  in  the  great  battle.  Each  indi- 
vidual and  each  generation  must  answer  that  question. 
Human  history  is  like  a  brilliant  game  of  chess  played 
by  successive  players.  Each  generation  takes  up  the 
game  where  its  predecessor  left  it  off.  The  game  be- 
comes more  complex  and  interesting  at  each  stage. 
Thus  the  purpose  of  God  who  presides  over  the  game 
in  all  its  stages  is  wrought  out.  Our  generation  has 
had  to  confront  the  complex  and  difficult  problems  of 
readjustment  of  human  relations  in  a  thousand  ways. 
Literally  It  is  true  that  old  things  have  passed  away, 
all  things  have  become  new  In  our  Industrial  life! 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  MORALITY      151 

The  principles  of  the  Gospel  are  unchanging.  The 
moral  universals  remain  the  same  through  the  ages. 
But  if  they  are  to  win  acceptance  among  men  it  is 
necessary  that  Christians  live  for  them  and  if  need  be 
die  for  them. 


XV 

MOB  VIOLENCE  AS  A  SYMPTOM* 

Acts  19 :  40 — "For  we  are  in  danger  to  be  called 
in  question  for  this  day's  uproar,  there  being  no  cause 
whereby  we  may  give  account  of  this  concourse." 

THE  love  of  one's  city,  state  or  country  implies 
hatred  of  the  evils  which  do  them  harm. 
Indignation  against  the  evil  corresponds 
exactly  with  the  intensity  of  the  love.  As  you  cannot 
have  an  "up"  without  implying  a  "down,"  a  yes  with- 
out a  no,  so  you  cannot  have  love  without  hate  of 
the  opposite  of  the  object  loved.  True  patriotism  de- 
mands condemnation  of  that  which  injures  Kentucky. 
Christian  duty  compels  outspokenness  in  pulpit,  press, 
and  by  the  individual. 

I  wish  to  consider  the  recent  mob  merely  as  an 
incident  in  connection  with  the  general  prevalence  of 
mob  rule  all  over  the  country.  In  Nevada  there  has 
been  almost  a  state  of  civil  war ;  in  Atlanta  a  year  ago 
a  terrible  uprising  occurred  and  the  negro  suffered; 
in  Indiana  the  same  thing  has  taken  place  in  one 
form  or  another  repeatedly.  The  mob  is  becoming 
chronic  in  American  life. 

What  is  a  mob?  It  is  a  headless  human  milliped. 
It  is  a  beast  with  a  thousand  legs,  having  the  ferocity 
and  blindness  and  cruelty  and  greed  and  passion  of 

*  Preached  after  an  outbreak  of  mob  violence  in  Kentucky. 

152 


MOB  VIOLENCE  AS  A  SYMPTOM  153 

the  beast  without  the  conscience  and  the  reason  of  the 
man.  There  are  several  kinds  of  mobs.  There  is  the 
hoodlum  mob,  where  the  lawless  element  simply  assert 
their  lawlessness,  and  there  is  the  vindictive  striker 
mob,  where  labour  struggling  for  its  rights  forgets 
itself  and  destroys  life  or  property,  and  there  is  the 
respectable  citizen  mob,  where  the  so-called  best  ele- 
ments of  the  community  take  the  law  in  their  own 
hands  and  set  aside  courts  and  juries.  The  last  named 
is  the  worst  of  all  forms  of  the  mob.  It  marks  a 
new  stage  in  the  development  of  the  mob,  and  this 
is  the  kind  of  mob  Kentucky  has  recently  witnessed. 
Let  us  consider  the  mob  violence  as  a  symptom : 
I.  Of  both  a  lack  of  confidence  and  of  over-con- 
fidence in  American  institutions.  From  lack  of  con- 
fidence, men  say,  "we  have  been  wronged,  the  courts 
cannot  be  trusted  to  right  our  wrong,"  or  "a  crime 
has  been  committed,  courts  cannot  be  trusted ;  we  will 
right  our  own  wrong."  It  is  a  lack  of  confidence  thus. 
But  the  members  of  these  mobs  would  deny  probably 
that  they  were  lacking  in  confidence  in  American  in- 
stitutions. Really  they  have  an  overweening  confi- 
dence in  those  institutions.  They  think  that  our  po- 
litical fabric  can  endure  any  kind  of  a  strain,  and 
become  reckless  in  their  violence.  This  is  the  peculiar 
temptation  of  Americans — over-confidence  in  their 
institutions.  The  American  temptation  is  not  the 
temptation  of  Christ  in  the  wilderness,  when  Satan 
wanted  Him  to  turn  the  stones  into  bread,  for  we 
have  bread  and  to  spare,  whereas  Christ  was  hungry. 
Nor  is  it  the  temptation  of  the  mountain  top,  when 
Satan  oflFered  Him  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  for 
we  are  filled  with  glory  and  power.  Our  temptation 
is  rather  that  of  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  when 


154  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Satan  urged  Christ  to  cast  Himself  down,  trusting 
the  promise  that  God  would  give  His  angels  charge 
and  bear  Him  up  in  their  hands,  lest  He  dash  His  foot 
against  a  stone. 

But  we  have  no  mortgage  on  Providence.  The 
biblical  promise  is  to  those  who  do  justly  and  love 
mercy  and  walk  humbly  before  their  God,  not  to 
those  who  love  injustice  and  do  violence  and  forget 
God.  The  Biblical  teaching  is  that  degenerate  govern- 
ment is  doomed.  When  we  fall  from  our  high  estate, 
God's  Providence  smites.  In  the  dream  of  the  king, 
the  image  had  a  head  of  gold,  a  breast  of  silver, 
thighs  of  brass,  legs  of  iron,  and  feet  of  mingled 
iron  and  clay,  and  a  stone  came  out  of  the  mountains, 
fell  on  the  image,  and  ground  it  to  pieces.  The  iron 
and  clay  of  the  feet  stood  for  the  degenerate  national 
life.  The  mob  spirit  is  the  clay  in  our  American  life 
and  is  our  chief  peril  to-day. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  the  mob  is  a  symptom  of  the 
collapse  of  the  moral  and  civic  ideal  in  the  interest 
of  the  commercial.  I  refer  now  especially  to  our 
recent  Kentucky  mob.  Here  it  was  not  indignation 
against  a  negro  who  had  committed  an  unnameable 
crime ;  it  was  a  mob  destroying  property  because  their 
profits  were  threatened.  It  was  an  attempt  to  adjust 
commercial  relations  through  violence.  Essentially, 
this  mob  spirit  means  money  profits  against  law  and 
order;  it  means  the  tobacco  business  against  consti- 
tutional liberty.  It  means  an  attempt  to  take  the  silver 
lining  from  the  cloud  of  our  destiny  in  order  to  put 
a  silver  lining  in  our  pockets.  It  means  the  golden 
dollar  against  the  golden  rule.  I  do  not  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  the  merits  of  the  controversy  between  the 
trust  and  the  tobacco  raisers,  or  on  the  merits  of  the 


MOB  VIOLENCE  AS  A  SYMPTOM   155 

case  in  any  uprising  of  the  mob.  I  point  out  merely 
the  significance  of  the  mob.  If  we  are  so  money  mad 
that  our  civic  fabric  is  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  passion 
for  gain,  then  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  end  with  us, 
unless  restraints  can  be  imposed  and  our  people 
brought  back  to  their  senses. 

3.  The  mob  is  a  symptom  of  a  reversion  to  an  earlier 
stage  of  human  society.  Man  has  passed  from  bar- 
barism, through  the  military  period,  to  the  pastoral 
when  he  kept  his  flocks,  and  then  to  the  agricultural 
when  he  tilled  the  soil  as  his  chief  occupation,  and 
then  he  passed  into  the  industrial  and  democratic  era. 
The  mob  is  a  lapse  to  the  military  basis  of  society. 
The  mob  is  a  declaration  of  war.  It  is  a  return  to  the 
beast  kingdoms,  symbolized  by  the  leopard  and  the 
bear  and  the  lion  and  the  goat  in  the  vision  of  the 
prophet  Daniel,  the  kingdom  which  was  to  give  place 
to  the  human  kingdom,  where  the  Son  of  Man  "held 
a  fretful  world  in  awe"  and  universal  law  prevailed. 

Are  we  ready  to  repudiate  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideals? 
The  glory  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  been  first  its 
love  of  liberty,  second  its  respect  for  the  rights  of 
others,  third  its  respect  for  the  dignity  of  courts  and 
legislatures  and  its  belief  in  the  competency  of  man 
in  all  the  spheres  of  human  activity.  De  Tocqueville 
says  this  principle  of  the  competency  of  man  in  all 
spheres  is  the  fundamental  American  principle. 
Americans  believe  in  the  competency  of  the  individual 
in  the  home,  in  the  church,  in  the  state,  and  every- 
where to  regulate  his  own  affairs.  The  citizen  mob 
is  the  proclamation  to  the  world  of  the  loss  of  faith 
in  this  doctrine  of  the  competency  of  man  to  regulate 
his  own  affairs. 

The  citizen  mob  is  a  tremendous  plea  for  socialism. 


156  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

The  socialist  who  wishes  to  confiscate  all  the  Instru- 
ments of  production  to  the  public  use  will  clap  his 
hands  with  delight.  The  recent  mob  has  preached  a 
tremendous  socialistic  sermon.  It  has  proclaimed  that 
the  competitive  system  is  a  failure,  that  there  is  no 
way  to  regulate  the  tobacco  trust  by  the  instruments 
of  government,  that  peaceful  adjustment  of  differences 
is  no  longer  possible.  Of  course,  the  members  of  the 
recent  citizen  mob  would  not  admit  all  this,  but  it  is 
implicit  in  all  they  did.  They  are  proclaiming  by  their 
conduct  the  exact  doctrine  which  the  socialist  is 
preaching  from  the  housetops. 

In  conclusion,  a  few  words  as  to  our  duty.  I  sin- 
cerely trust  that  the  government  at  Frankfort  will 
take  vigorous  hold  of  the  situation,  and  we  believe 
it  will  do  so,  whatever  may  be  the  steps  necessary. 
There  are  several  duties,  however,  which  are  incum- 
bent upon  every  citizen.  One  of  them  is  outspoken- 
ness against  mob  violence.  The  tendency  is  too  marked 
to  condone  and  excuse  such  violence  on  the  plea  that 
the  grievance  is  great.  No  grievance  is  ever  great 
enough  to  justify  the  overthrow  of  law  and  order, 
for  law  and  order  is  the  most  precious  jewel  in  our 
civilization.  It  is  our  civilization.  And  another  duty 
is  courage ;  courage  in  the  courts,  courage  on  the  part 
of  witnesses,  courage  on  the  part  of  juries,  and  es- 
pecially courage  In  the  citizenship  at  large  to  support 
the  administrators  of  the  law.  Bad  courts,  bad  juries, 
bad  officers,  and  bad  politics,  after  all,  are  just 
thermometers  which  tell  the  state  of  things  among  the 
people.  They  are  effects,  the  causes  He  back  of  them. 
A  third  remark  that  needs  to  be  made  as  to  our  duty 
is  that  we  are  called  upon  to  apply  our  Christianity. 
Theories  of  righteousness  are  good.    Theories  of  sal- 


MOB  VIOLENCE  AS  A  SYMPTOM       157 

vation  are  good.  Doctrines  are  necessary.  The  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible  are  absolutely  indispensable.  But 
so  long  as  they  remain  theories,  so  long  as  they  remain 
mere  doctrines,  they  amount  to  little.  There  is  a 
tremendous  call  to  the  pulpit  and  to  the  press,  to  the 
teacher  and  the  parent,  and  to  every  man  and  woman 
who  is  in  a  position  to  shape  and  mould  public  sen- 
timent, to  engage  in  a  campaign  of  practical  effort 
to  apply  the  principles  of  righteousness  to  civic  life. 
The  real  cure  for  mob  violence  is  the  slow  but  sure 
method  of  leavening  the  minds  of  the  people  with 
higher  ideals  of  life  and  duty.  Meantime,  the  direct 
and  correct  method  is  the  enforcement  of  the  law  at 
every  point.  To  this  inflence  every  citizen  should  lend 
his  aid  and  his  support. 


XVI 

CHRISTIANITY  AS  POWER 

Acts  1 :  8 — "Ye  shall  receive  power." 
Phil.  4:  13 — "I  can  do  all  things." 

THERE  is  a  vital  distinction  between  men  which 
may  be  described  thus:  One  man  is  a  voice, 
another  man  an  echo.  John  the  Baptist  said 
of  himself,  I  am  a  voice.  He  meant  by  that  that 
God  spoke  directly  through  him;  that  he  was  not  a 
mere  echo  of  what  others  had  said.  This  is  also 
true  of  Christianity.  It  may  be  a  voice  or  it  may  be 
an  echo.  Much  of  the  current  Christianity  is  an  echo, 
and  sometimes  an  echo  of  an  echo.  What  we  need 
and  what  we  wish  is  the  original  Christianity  of  power. 
And  that  is  the  subject  of  my  sermon — Christianity 
as  power.  I  invite  attention  to  three  aspects  of  Chris- 
tianity as  power. 

I.  I  call  attention,  first,  to  the  perversions  of  Chris- 
tianity as  power.  And  under  this  head  I  wish  to 
call  attention: 

I.  To  the  sacramental  perversion.  Early  Chris- 
tianity was  soon  corrupted  from  the  original  by 
priestly  and  sacramental  elements  that  entered  into  It. 
There  was  the  old  human  longing  for  a  human  priest 
to  come  between  the  soul  and  God,  and  there  was  a 
longing  for  the  magical  efficacy  of  sacraments,  and 
early  Christianity  yielded  to  this  temptation,  and  the 
real  presence  of  Christ  ceased  to  be  a  fact  In  the 
realm  of  spirit,  and  was  thought  to  be  a  fact  in  the 

158 


CHRISTIANITY  AS  POWER         159 

realm  of  matter — Christ  in  the  bread  and  wine.  Now, 
this  sacramental  Christianity  has  a  certain  kind  of 
power — ^power  to  control  the  superstitious,  power  to 
restrain,  perhaps,  the  lawless,  the  power  to  quench 
individuality ;  but  it  has  not  the  power  to  free  the  soul 
and  send  it  along  its  spiritual  career. 

2.  Secondly,  notice  the  sesthetical  perversion  of 
Christianity.  This  is  the  perversion  through  liturgy, 
ritual,  and  beauty  of  form  and  ceremony  in  worship. 
I  do  not  mean  that  beautiful  forms  and  ceremonies 
are  necessarily  hurtful  or  un-Christian.  What  I  mean 
to  say  is  that  Christianity  has  often  lost  its  power  in 
the  beautiful  form.  The  ideal  of  Christianity  is  not 
primarily  beauty,  but  righteousness;  not  sesthetics, 
but  power.  The  question  of  ritual,  then,  is  not  fun- 
damental in  Christianity.  But  it  is  of  vital  impor- 
tance whether  you  conceive  your  Christianity  as 
aesthetic  culture  or  moral  energy.  Ritual  cannot  cure 
sin.  It  is  beautiful,  like  the  Venus  de  Milo  in  the 
Louvre  in  Paris,  but  it  is  handless  and  armless,  and 
as  a  spiritual  force  by  itself  it  is  as  helpless  as  was 
this  same  Venus  when  Heine,  the  German  poet,  tem- 
pest-tossed and  distressed  in  spirit,  stood  before  it 
and  held  out  his  hands  in  entreaty  and  begged  the 
Venus  to  help  him. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  notice  the  intellectual  per- 
version of  Christianity.  Jesus  said  in  His  word  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Acts:  *Tt  is  not  for  you  to  know, 
but  ye  shall  receive  power."  The  attempt  to  make 
Christianity  an  intellectual  culture  has  often  perverted 
it.  This  perversion  is  an  attempt  to  reconcile  Chris- 
tianity with  every  new  form  of  intellectual  culture 
carried  to  the  point  of  emptying  Christianity  of  its 
distinguishing  elements.    Many  human  thinkers  have 


160  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

been  kings  in  Zion — men  like  Plato,  Aristotle,  Darwin, 
Hegel,  Ritschl — dominating  the  thoughts  of  men,  and 
leading  them  captive  to  a  humanly  devised  system  of 
culture  or  thought.  But  this  is  a  perversion  of  Chris- 
tianity. While  Christianity  harmonizes  with  every  ele- 
ment of  truth  in  all  systems,  and  while  it  is  proper  to 
seek  these  harmonies,  it  is  always  fatal  to  economize 
Christianity  and  trim  it  to  make  it  fit  these  human 
systems. 

II.  I  ask  attention,  in  the  second  place,  to  the  ad- 
justments of  Christianity  as  power.  We  have  noted 
some  of  the  perversions.  I  now  wish  to  remark  that 
no  Christianity  can  have  power  which  does  not  main- 
tain the  Biblical  adjustments  which  are  the  conditions 
of  its  power. 

I,  The  first  adjustment  is  to  its  source,  the  Spirit 
of  God.  Christianity  is  a  spiritual  religion.  It  means 
power  from  without,  but  it  means  power  within  man's 
spirit  through  God's  Spirit.  Christianity  means  en- 
listed power ;  not  a  power  evolved  from  human  nature, 
but  power  given  from  above.  Indeed,  in  this  respect 
it  is  like  all  the  forms  of  power.  When  a  man  eats 
bread,  or  drinks  water,  or  inhales  the  atmosphere,  he  is 
simply  forming  an  alliance  with  the  physical  universe, 
with  the  cosmos,  and  drawing  its  power  into  his  life. 
Likewise,  when  he  obtains  spiritual  power,  it  is  from 
the  spiritual  cosmos.    The  divine  order  is  laid  hold  of. 

As  a  power  thus  coming  from  without,  there  are 
several  important  truths  connected  with  it.  It  comes 
to  us.  As  a  person  it  speaks  to  us,  communicates  ideas, 
energy.  We  can  grasp  it.  Past  failures  and  discour- 
agements do  not  count,  for  they  only  mean  that  we 
have  been  matching  our  own  power  against  obstacles. 
Our  own  weaknesses  and  infirmities  do  not  count, 


CHRISTIANITY  AS  POWER         161 

because  the  power  which  we  have  is  from  without, 
is  independent  of  us,  and  can  use  us  for  its  ends. 
Hence,  we  should  cultivate  this  power  assiduously, 
patiently,  continuously. 

2.  A  second  adjustment  of  Christianity  as  power  is 
to  its  instrument,  truth.  Christianity  owes  much  of 
its  power  to  the  fact  that  it  employs  truth  to  accomplish 
its  results.  The  fulness  of  power  came  in  early 
Christianity  when  the  fulness  of  truth  came.  Pente- 
cost followed  closely  upon  the  ascension  of  Christ. 
When  the  facts  of  redemption  were  completed,  the 
interpreter  of  the  facts  came.  Jesus  Christ  is  like 
the  sun.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  like  the  sun-glass  which 
concentrates  and  intensifies  the  rays  which  fall  from 
Him  upon  the  human  heart.  The  danger  of  mysti- 
cism is  that  it  will  break  away  from  truth,  and  the  dan- 
ger of  intellectual  study  of  Christianity  is  that  it  will 
lack  in  the  mystic  element.  It  is  the  union  of  spiritual 
power  with  truth  which  gives  the  largest  results. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  note  the  adjustment  of  Chris- 
tianity to  its  agent,  personality.  The  power  of  the 
Gospel  is  a  personal  power.  When  Jean  Val  Jean 
was  arrested  for  stealing  the  candlesticks  from  the 
Bishop  and  carried  back  to  the  home  of  the  Bishop, 
in  the  great  novel  of  Hugo,  you  will  recall  that  the 
Bishop  told  the  officers  that  he  had  given  the  candle- 
sticks to  the  man;  whereupon  Jean  Val  Jean  went 
out,  having  been  released  by  the  officers,  into  a  great 
struggle  with  God,  the  result  of  which  was  his  con- 
version. In  thinking  over  his  struggle,  he  recalled 
that  it  was  not,  after  all,  a  struggle  with  God  so  much 
directly,  as  a  struggle  with  God  through  the  Bishop. 
The  face  of  the  Bishop  haunted  him  in  all  his  inner 
struggle.    It  was  God  in  the  kindness  of  the  Bishop 


162  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

that  won  him.  So  God  reaches  men  through  other 
men.  The  meaning  of  grace  is  that  it  takes  the  form 
of  personal  Hfe,  personal  character,  personal  consecra- 
tion. All  the  great  descriptions  of  grace  in  the  New 
Testament  find  their  expression  thus  in  personal 
action.  Our  personalities  are  the  dynamos  of  divine 
power  in  the  world. 

4.  The  fourth  adjustment  of  Christianity  as  power 
is  to  its  end,  world  conquest.  Christianity  is  by  its 
nature  expansive.  Any  force  or  principle  which  is 
inherently  expansive  in  its  nature  must  have  play  and 
freedom,  or  else  it  fails  of  its  end  and  loses  power. 
Christianity  is  such  a  principle.  It  cannot  be  con- 
fined without  injury  to  itself.  It  demands  growth, 
progress,  expansion;  and  any  form  of  Christianity 
which  does  not  contemplate  such  growth  is  destined 
to  wane  in  power.  New  Testament  teaching  on  this 
subject  exhibits  clearly  its  nature  in  this  regard.  The 
promise  of  power  in  the  New  Testament  is  coupled 
with  world  conquest.  "All  power  it  given  unto  me," 
said  Jesus,  and  then  commanded,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world."  Witnessing  in  power  is  coupled  with  a  world 
field — Jerusalem,  Judea,  Samaria,  and  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.  The  peril  of  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity was  that  it  might  be  contracted  into  a  Jewish 
sect.  A  house-top  vision  was  needed  to  illuminate 
the  mind  of  Peter  on  this  subject.  The  enemies  of 
the  power  of  Christianity  were  the  Judaizers.  The 
apostle  of  power  was  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, whose  gospel  rang  out  with  a  clear  note  of 
universal  invitation  to  mankind. 

TIL  In  the  third  place,  I  invite  attention  to  the 
appropriation  of  Christianity  as  power.  To  appro- 
priate Christianity  as  power  is  to  have  faith  in  Jesus 


CHRISTIANITY  AS  POWER         163 

Christ.  It  is  to  appropriate  Him.  Christianity  is  the 
rehgion  of  a  person ;  a  person  is  the  centre.  Moham- 
medanism is  the  rehgion  of  a  book.  A  personal  object 
of  devotion  such  as  Jesus  Christ  is  unknown  to 
Mohammedanism.  All  the  great  efforts  to  attain 
power  in  Christian  history  have  been  efforts  to  relate 
the  life  of  the  believer  to  Christ,  the  effort  to  maintain 
union  with  Him.  The  effort  of  John  Wesley,  and  of 
Finney,  and  of  the  Keswick  people,  with  their  seven 
points  in  the  life  of  consecration — all  these  are  efforts 
toward  one  and  the  same  thing,  finding  the  way  to 
Christ  and  the  way  to  maintain  union  with  Him. 

After  all,  our  problem  is  a  problem  in  spiritual 
mechanics.  It  is  the  problem  of  overcoming  resist- 
ance at  one  point  by  power  at  another  point.  It  is 
maintaining  the  spiritual  life  at  such  a  high  level 
that  the  carnal  and  the  worldly  influences  cannot  over- 
come us.  We  must  change  the  proportions  of  the 
spiritual  and  the  carnal  in  our  lives.  Some  one  has 
said  that  a  water-bottle  might  float  like  a  feather  in 
Uranus,  and  that  a  man  might  jump  ten  feet  in  the 
air  at  the  equator  in  Neptune,  all  because  the  propor- 
tions of  natural  forces  are  changed,  modified. 

Let  us  resolve  together  that  we  will  maintain  this 
contact  with  Christ;  that  we  will  trust,  not  a  book, 
not  a  method,  not  a  creed,  but  Christ.  We  will  not 
let  the  clatter  of  the  machinery  of  organization,  the 
pursuit  of  earthly  gain,  or  the  chill  of  unbelief  dampen 
our  faith,  but  that  we  will  maintain  steadfastly  the 
spiritual  life  to  the  end.  And  we  shall  find  that  con- 
tact with  Him  means  power — power  for  personal  ser- 
vice, power  for  missionary  endeavour,  power  in  our 
churches,  and  boards  and  conventions,  power  in  social 
and  business  life,  power  everywhere. 


XVII 

DEDICATION  SERMON 
Haggai  2 :  9.    "In  this  place  mill  I  give  peace.'* 

THE  background  presents  a  picturesque  situation. 
A  remnant  of  the  captive  nation  has  returned 
from  Babylon.  Before  them  at  Jerusalem  lay 
the  ruins  of  the  first  Temple  built  by  Solomon,  the 
glories  of  which  long  since  had  perished  under  the 
vandal  hands  of  the  conquerors.  The  returned  exiles 
first  devote  themselves  to  efforts  to  improve  their  ma- 
terial conditions  and  are  engrossed  in  the  task,  forget- 
ful of  the  house  of  God.  Then  appears  among  them 
the  tall  and  impressive  and  aged  form  of  the  prophet 
Haggai,  who  calls  the  people  to  the  task  of  rebuilding 
the  Temple.  His  appeal  is  a  striking  one,  which  is 
found  in  its  chief  points  in  Chapter  i,  verses  4  to  11. 

These  verses,  taken  in  connection  with  my  text,  give 
us  the  function  of  the  church  in  human  life.  For 
the  house  of  worship  stands  for  the  people  and  the 
worship  and  the  spiritual  life  which  is  carried  on 
within  it.  I  observe  the  two- fold  function  of  the 
church  in  human  society :  First,  the  temporal,  and  sec- 
ond, the  spiritual. 

I.  The  Temporal  Function  of  the  Church. 

What  does  the  church  signify  for  man's  temporal 
life?  It  stands  with  its  quiet  and  unostentatious  minis- 
tries in  the  spiritual  life,  but  what  has  it  to  do  with 
worldly  and  temporal  affairs  ?    Can  there  be  any  rela- 

164 


DEDICATION  SERMON  165 

tion  between  the  church  and  the  vital  forces  in  the 
soil  which  give  life  and  fruitfulness  to  the  planted 
grain?  This  old  prophet  says  "Ye  have  sown  much 
and  bring  in  little,"  because  of  the  neglect  of  the  house 
of  God.  Can  the  church  affect  economic  questions  and 
have  anything  to  do  with  poverty  or  riches?  The 
prophet  says:  "Ye  eat  but  have  not  enough;  ye  drink 
but  ye  are  not  filled  with  drink,"  because  ye  neglect 
the  house  of  God.  Does  the  church  affect  the  stability 
of  savings  banks  in  any  way?  Haggai  says,  "he  that 
earneth  wages  that  he  may  save  it  putteth  it  in  a 
bag  with  holes,"  because  they  lived  in  ceiled  houses 
when  God's  house  lay  waste.  Is  there  any  connection 
between  the  church  and  the  physical  universe?  Has 
the  church  any  alliance  with  the  sea  and  the  sun  and 
the  clouds?  Has  it  an  orbit  of  its  own  in  the  vast 
system  of  forces,  like  that  of  a  planet,  which  affects 
all  the  parts  of  the  system?  Listen  again  to  the  words 
of  the  old  prophet:  "Therefore,  i.  e.  because  ye  neg- 
lect the  house  of  God,  for  your  sakes  the  heaven  is 
stayed  from  dew,  and  the  earth  is  stayed  from  her 
fruit.  And  I  called  for  a  drought  upon  the  land  and 
upon  the  mountains  and  upon  the  grain,  and  upon  the 
new  wine  and  upon  the  oil,  and  upon  that  which  the 
ground  bringeth  forth,  and  upon  men,  and  upon  cat- 
tle, and  upon  all  the  labour  of  the  hands."  (ch.  i, 
vss,  lO-II.) 

The  hand  that  made  the  universe  made  the  church 
and  set  it  in  the  midst  of  the  vast  system  of  things. 
It  is  the  keystone  in  the  arch  of  human  life  which  binds 
all  the  parts  together  and  prevents  their  utter  col- 
lapse. One  of  the  most  pathetic  things  in  the  reading 
of  history  is  the  fate  of  great  empires  and  civilizations, 
and  in  them  all  we  look  in  vain  for  any  force  or  agency 


166  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

or  influence  which  did  or  could  do  the  work  of  the 
Christian  church.  They  were  massive  arches  reared 
by  human  wisdom,  but  without  the  keystone  which 
holds  them  together.  The  Babylonian  civilization  and 
that  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  unfinished  arches  which 
fell  under  the  blow  of  the  tempests  of  time,  because 
there  was  no  church  to  serve  as  keystone  and  make 
them  stable. 

It  is  no  wonder  then  that  modern  nations  of  the 
West  which  have  known  the  power  of  the  church  re- 
gard it  as  possessing  the  highest  economic  as  well  as 
spiritual  value.  No  wonder  the  police  force  of  London 
reported  that  vice  and  crime  decrease  in  the  slums  of 
London  in  proportion  as  the  forces  of  Christianity 
triumph.  No  wonder  the  English  officers  in  Burmah 
reported  that  Christian  towns  and  villages  were  like 
moral  and  spiritual  oases  in  the  desert  of  the  surround- 
ing heathenism  in  the  early  days  of  missionary  effort. 
No  wonder  that  the  blue  books  of  the  nations  appraise 
each  foreign  missionary  to  a  heathen  country  as  being 
worth  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  year  to  commerce,  for 
a  missionary  is  the  leader  of  a  procession.  Behind 
him,  in  lengthening  file,  walk  the  carpenter  and  the 
blacksmith,  the  architect,  the  farmer,  the  banker,  the 
merchant,  the  doctor  and  school  teacher,  the  lawyer, 
the  statesman,  the  scholar.  The  missionary  waves 
the  wand  and  new  civilizations  spring  into  being,  as  if 
by  magic,  around  the  little  churches  which  he  founds. 
No  wonder  Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  "American  Common- 
wealth," comments  with  praise  upon  the  significant  fact 
that  in  our  westward  development  all  the  new  common- 
wealths accepted  as  an  axiom  the  principle  of  the 
non-taxation  of  churches  and  church  property,  on  the 
ground  that  the  church  makes  a  contribution  of  the 


DEDICATION  SERMON  167 

highest  possible  value  to  the  common  life  and  gives 
far  more  than  an  adequate  return  for  all  it  receives 
in  exemption. 

And  yet,  it  spite  of  the  manifold  temporal  blessings 
which  the  church  bestows  upon  the  community,  there 
are  a  large  number  of  people  who  enjoy  these  blessings, 
and  who  yet  pass  it  by,  who  never  enter  its  doors,  or 
give  one  cent  to  its  support,  or  speak  one  word  in  its 
praise.  They  are  unconscious,  perhaps,  whence  these 
blessings  come.  The  church  rises,  with  its  spiritual 
influences,  like  a  mighty,  invisible  tree,  with  massive 
and  wide-spreading  branches  on  which  the  fruit  ripens 
and  falls  every  day  in  the  year.  Thousands  there  are 
who,  like  children  beneath  the  mighty  tree,  gather  the 
fruit  and  eat  it  with  never  a  thought  of  the  tree  itself 
or  the  cost  in  time,  and  money,  and  labour,  and  prayer, 
and  spiritual  struggle,  to  those  who  keep  the  tree  alive 
and  make  it  fruitful. 

And  yet  it  is  true  that  while  on  the  one  hand  there 
are  those  who  take  the  temporal  benefits  which  the 
Church  of  Christ  bestows  without  any  appreciation  or 
recognition  of  the  source,  yet  on  the  other,  those  who 
support  the  church  and  give  their  lives  for  her  usually 
do  it  without  any  direct  reference  to  the  temporal 
benefits  at  all.  Their  chief  appreciation  is  on  other 
grounds.  In  another  mood  and  for  different  ends  they 
sing 

"I  love  thy  church,  O  God, 

Her  walls  before  thee  stand. 
Dear  as  the  apple  of  thine  eye 

And  graven  on  thy  hands." 

II.  And  this  leads  me  to  my  second  point,  which  is 
the  spiritual  function  of  the  church. 


168  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

"In  this  place  will  I  give  peace,  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah  of  hosts."  In  these  words  we  have  the 
secret  of  human  devotion  to  the  church  and  the  secret 
spring  of  its  mighty  influence  over  human  life.  Man's 
deepest  need  is  union  and  fellowship  with  God.  One 
has  said  "the  purpose  of  God  in  creation  did  not  ap- 
pear until  the  dust  stood  erect  in  the  form  of  a  man.'* 
But  the  meaning  of  man  did  not  appear  until  his  like- 
ness to  God  appeared  in  man  and  the  tragedy  of  history 
is  the  hunger  of  sinful  man  for  the  God  whom  he  lost. 
The  deepest  need  of  man  is  reconciliation  with  God, 
reconciliation  in  all  its  forms.  We  need  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  God  in  the  sense  of  cheerful  and  obedient 
acceptance  of  our  lot  in  life,  our  poverty  or  sorrow  or 
limitations  and  hindrances ;  in  the  sweet  assurance  that 
all  is  well  in  any  condition  so  long  as  we  have  Him.  We 
need  reconciliation  with  God  in  the  sense  of  cheerful 
surrender  of  what  is  beyond  our  reach  in  our  desire 
or  ambition.  We  need  reconciliation  to  God  in  the 
sense  of  a  firm  confidence  that  our  lifework  is  accord- 
ing to  His  will,  in  order  that  we  may  be  inspired  to  do 
our  best  in  all  our  undertakings.  Above  all,  and  deep- 
est of  all,  we  need  fellowship  with  God  in  the  for- 
giveness of  our  sins,  which  leads  to  peace  with  all  men 
and  a  heart  without  bitterness  towards  any  upon  earth. 

Now  the  church  is  the  institutional  form  of  God's 
answer  to  man's  craving,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  being 
the  central  and  only  message  the  church  brings.  There 
are  two  statements  I  make  at  this  point  which  I  believe 
can  be  defended  against  all  who  would  contest  them. 
The  first  is  that  no  matter  what  road  of  human  ex- 
perience a  man  travels,  ultimately  he  will  find  that  his 
supreme  need  is  peace  with  God.  The  other  statement 
is  that  no  matter  what  be  the  form  of  that  need  or  the 


DEDICATION  SERMON  169 

experience  out  of  which  it  grows,  the  church  contains 
the  blessing  to  supply  it.  Plato  the  philosopher,  the 
ablest  man  intellectually  of  ancient  times,  travelled  the 
road  of  thought  and  what  was  his  conclusion?  "We 
must  wait  until  some  God,  or  God-inspired  man  shall 
come  and  lift  the  veil  from  our  eyes?"  He  needed 
intellectual  peace  with  God,  and  the  Christ  who  is  the 
centre  of  the  life  of  the  church  is  the  exact  counter- 
part of  his  thought.  Job  travelled  the  road  of  sorrow 
and  loss  and  disaster.  Wave  on  wave  of  ruin  smote  his 
life  and  left  him  poor  and  friendless  and  helpless,  and 
in  the  great  deep  of  his  suffering  his  longing  was  for 
one  who  could  lay  one  hand  on  God  and  one  on  him- 
self. He  needed  peace  with  God.  The  Hindoo  devotee 
whom  the  missionary  saw  prostrating  himself  in  great 
distress,  and  who  told  the  missionary  of  his  wanderings 
from  shrine  to  shrine  and  from  one  sacred  place  to 
another,  of  having  surrendered  all  his  wealth  in  the 
vain  effort  to  find  inward  peace,  and  who  promptly 
accepted  Christ  the  Mediator  when  presented  to  him, 
and  found  what  he  had  so  long  sought,  simply  needed 
peace  with  God. 

Now  we  may  observe  how  the  church  brings  its 
spiritual  benefits  to  men. 

Let  me  say  here  that  I  am  not  advocating  the  idea 
of  salvation  through  the  church.  Salvation  is  by  the 
grace  of  God  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  anywhere 
on  earth,  in  the  inner  chamber,  or  on  the  mountain's 
top,  in  the  thick  of  the  battle  of  life,  or  the  quiet  of 
the  cloister.  But  I  do  mean  that  the  church  is  the  only 
organization  on  earth  which  stands  for  the  highest 
spiritual  interests.  There  are  political  organizations 
and  various  benevolent  organizations.  These  may  be 
good  in  their  places  and  for  their  ends,  but  none  can 


170  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

take  the  place  of  the  church.  The  utmost  that  science 
can  do  forever  comes  short  of  the  spiritual  redemption 
man  needs.  In  his  new  "Locksley  Hall,"  written  sixty 
years  after  the  first  one,  Tennyson  laments  the  failure 
of  science  to  minister  to  man's  deepest  and  highest 
needs.    He  says,  indicating  modern  tendencies : 

"Pluck  the  mighty  from  their  seat,  but  set  no  meek 

ones  in  their  place 
Pillory  wisdom  in  your  markets,  pelt  your  offal  in  her 

face. 

"Tumble  nature  heels  o'er  head,  and  yelling  with  the 

yelling  street 
Set  the  feet  above  the  brain,  and  swear  the  brain  is  in 

the  feet. 

"Bring  the  old  dark  ages  back  without  the  faith,  with- 
out the  hope 

Break  the  State,  the  Church,  the  Throne,  and  roll 
their  ruins  down  the  slope." 

Now  I  do  not  say  there  is  no  religion  without  the 
church,  but  I  do  say  that  religion  never  becomes  ef- 
fective as  a  force  in  human  society  without  the  church. 
Electricity  may  be  diffused  through  space  and  even 
run  along  a  wire,  but  you  cannot  get  a  message  with- 
out the  instrument  in  the  office  which  localizes  it.  The 
Church  is  the  instrument  which  localizes  the  religious 
power.  Divine  beauty  lies  hidden  in  the  moisture  and 
the  sunlight,  but  the  glories  of  the  rainbow  do  not  ap- 
pear until  the  sunlight  falls  on  the  floating  moisture 
at  the  proper  angle.  The  church  is  the  moisture  ad- 
justed by  the  Divine  hand  to  the  beams  of  His  own 


DEDICATION  SERMON  171 

grace  wherein  unto  angels  and  principalities  and 
powers  is  made  known  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 

I  note  a  few  of  the  ways  in  which  the  church  ful- 
fils its  spiritual  mission  and  ministers  peace  to  men. 

(i)  The  first  is  by  the  vision  it  aflfords  of  divine 
things.  In  the  West  there  is  high  up  on  the  mountain 
side  a  narrow  rift  in  the  wall  of  solid  rock,  a  mere 
crack  or  slit,  through  which,  after  a  vigorous  climb, 
one  may  look  out  into  the  Yosemite  Valley  upon  a 
vision  like  that  of  Paradise.  The  church  is  such  a 
rift  in  the  blank  wall  of  life  where  we  come  on  the 
Sabbath  day  to  gaze  upon  the  infinite.  We  carry  the 
vision  with  us  back  to  our  drudgery  of  daily  toil  and 
through  the  week  we  are  inspired  by  it. 

(2)  The  church  fulfils  her  ministry  to  our  spirits 
by  the  fellowships  which  she  creates. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  aged  and  infirm,  that  the 
invalid  and  shut-in  so  longs  for  the  worship  of  the 
house  of  God.  For  in  it  and  through  it  have  come  the 
sweetest  and  most  sacred  fellowships  outside  our  own 
homes,  and  the  church  casts  a  halo  back  even  over  the 
home.  This  fellowship  of  the  saints  in  the  household 
of  God  is  associated  with  our  deepest  experiences. 
How  many  of  us  have  found  the  words  of  the  text 
to  be  true  ?  The  man  who  has  wandered  from  the  path 
of  duty  and  the  world  grows  cold  and  empty  and  a  deep 
heart-hunger  arises  in  him,  and  he  returns  to  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  church,  and  as  he  leaves  the  house 
of  God  his  heart  echoes  the  words,  "In  this  place  will 
I  give  peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  The  man  who 
is  harrassed  and  burdened,  who  knows  not  what  is 
duty  or  how  he  shall  act  in  some  great  emergency, 
finds  his  way  into  the  courts  of  the  Lord  and  the  peace 
of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding,  steals  into 


172  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

his  heart  and  he  goes  forth  in  lyric  ecstasy  of  soul, 
singing  to  himself  the  words,  "In  this  place  will  I  give 
peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  The  heart  that  has 
lately  stood  over  an  open  grave  and  has  known  the 
heart-break  of  death  and  darkness  in  the  home,  to 
whom  "the  touch  of  the  vanished  hand  and  the  sound 
of  a  voice  that  is  still"  are  as  poignant  memories  and 
incurable  wounds,  comes  once  again  into  the  circle  of 
Christian  fellowship  and  hears  the  voice  of  sympathy, 
and  is  once  more  still  to  listen  to  the  words  from  the 
sacred  desk  about  the  resurrection  and  the  life  and  the 
tender  pity  of  the  Lord,  and  is  swept  aloft  by  sacred 
song  as  in  a  divine  tempest  of  compassion,  and  as  if 
by  some  divine  magic  the  healing  comes  and  the  heart 
is  made  tranquil  with  the  peace  which  the  world  can- 
not give  and  cannot  take  away,  and  it  too  lisps  in 
humility  and  joy  the  words  of  the  text,  "In  this  place 
will  I  give  peace,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 

(3)  The  church  fulfils  its  mission  by  supplying 
power  as  well  as  vision  and  fellowship. 

The  place  of  any  object  in  the  scale  of  being  and 
its  value  are  largely  determined  by  the  forces  and  in- 
fluences required  to  sustain  it.  You  measure  thus  the 
gulf  between  the  organic  and  the  inorganic.  The  peb- 
bles require  the  action  of  a  few  of  the  mighty  forces 
of  the  universe  to  sustain  it,  while  the  tiniest  flower 
calls  for  the  action  of  the  mighty  ocean  to  give  it 
moisture,  of  the  power  of  gravitation  to  give  it  shape 
and  form,  and  the  sunlight  must  needs  travel  ninety 
million  miles  to  paint  its  petals.  Higher  still  is  man 
in  the  scale  of  being.  He  requires  all  that  the  flower 
does  and  in  addition  the  energy  of  the  spiritual  uni- 
verse. This  is  the  meaning  of  Christ  and  the  Gospel, 
"We  all  with  unveiled  faces  beholding  as  in  a  mirror 


DEDICATION  SERMON  173 

the  glory  of  the  Lord  are  transfigured  into  the  same 
image  from  glory  unto  glory,"  Man  can  unfold  into 
his  highest  possibilities  and  fulfil  his  destiny  only  as 
divine  forces  play  through  his  soul.  When  Jesus  says 
"ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows,"  He  is 
not  saying  that  sparrows  are  worthless,  but  only  that 
relatively  man  is  unspeakably  more  valuable.  When  He 
askS;  "What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  soul?"  He  does  not  mean  to  dis- 
parage the  world,  but  only  to  show  how  much  greater 
relatively  is  man  than  the  world.  When  Paul  speaks 
of  our  groaning  in  this  tabernacle  of  the  body  and  in 
our  earthly  environment,  he  does  not  mean  that  we  are 
weaklings  and  helpless  puppets  amid  the  play  of  colos- 
sal forces  of  the  cosmos  which  are  greater  than  we. 
He  means  rather  that  we  feel  within  ourselves  the  play 
of  forces  vaster  than  anything  around  us,  energies 
which  shall  enable  us  to  break  asunder  the  physical 
husk,  like  a  divine  chrysalis,  when  we  shall  spread  our 
wings  in  a  glory  which  shall  dim  the  firmament.  Now 
the  church  is  the  sphere  in  which  and  through  which 
these  divine  forces  play.  In  her  atmosphere  and  fel- 
lowship, through  her  ministry  and  ordinances  and  wor- 
ship, men  find  themselves  acted  upon  by  God  Himself. 
Now  it  requires  sympathy  and  appreciation  and  an 
attitude  of  faith  and  susceptibility  to  obtain  any  of 
these  things  from  the  church.  There  are  two  sides  to 
her  life,  the  outer  and  the  inner.  From  without  she 
presents  not  an  ideal  spectacle.  Only  those  who  get 
the  inside  view  can  know  the  meaning  of  what  I  say. 
Susceptibility,  responsiveness,  a  spirit  alive  to  spiritual 
realities,  and  docile  under  divine  influences — these 
alone  come  into  the  true  meaning  of  Christ  and  of  His 
church.     One,  a  child,  stands  before  an  upright  ob- 


174  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

ject  in  Italy  yonder  and  sees  in  it  merely  a  hard  piece 
of  stone  which  in  some  strange  way  has  assumed  hu- 
man shape.  Another,  a  man,  sees  in  it  the  wondrous 
vision  of  Michelangelo,  who  transmuted  it  from 
being  crude  marble  into  his  masterpiece,  Moses,  The 
difference  is  one  of  susceptibility.  One  hears  a  suc- 
cession of  noises  made  by  a  group  of  men  sawing  on 
something  they  hold  in  their  hands,  with  horse-hair 
strung  between  the  ends  of  a  stick,  and  wonders  why 
they  waste  their  energy  for  naught.  Another  hears  in 
those  sounds  the  harmonies  of  a  mighty  symphony 
lifting  the  soul  to  the  stars.  The  difference  is  one  of 
susceptibility.  One  sees  in  man  a  physical  organism 
made  up  of  so  much  oxygen  and  carbon  and  phos- 
phorus which  has  no  meaning  beyond  that  of  the 
beast  that  perishes.  Another  sees  in  him  a  spirit  deli- 
cately strung  through  the  physical  organism,  like  the 
strings  of  a  lyre  to  be  played  upon  by  the  breath  of 
almighty  God  and  destined  to  endure  when  the  "world 
is  old  and  the  stars  grow  cold  and  the  books  of  the 
judgment  day  unfold." 

One  sees  in  the  church  a  mere  outward  'organization 
with  no  special  significance  for  the  world  beyond  any 
other  organization.  Another  sees  in  it  the  action  of 
divine  forces  of  fellowship,  of  brotherhood,  of  love, 
sees  in  it  the  prophecy  of  the  end  of  war  and  the  reign 
of  justice  upon  earth,  sees  in  it  the  ideal  of  a  coming 
Kingdom  of  God  when  His  will  shall  be  done  on  earth 
as  in  heaven,  and  if  he  enters  her  fellowship  he  will 
learn  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the  kingdom  of  love. 


XVIII 

THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION  OF  JESUS 

CHRIST 

Luke,  19:  10 — "The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  zvhich  was  lost." 

DR.  LYMAN  ABBOTT  is  reported  as  having 
said  a  few  years  ago  that  he  would  be  glad 
if  the  word  salvation  could  be  blotted  out  of 
the  list  of  great  words  in  our  Christian  speech.  Per- 
haps he  was  not  inveighing  so  much  against  the  use 
as  against  the  abuse  of  the  word.  For  the  removal  of 
that  great  word  would  be  the  removal  of  the  Keystone 
from  the  arch.  It  would  be  to  ring  the  tree  of  life  with 
the  keen  edge  of  the  axe,  and  to  leave  it  to  wither  and 
die.  If  we  take  this  word  and  keep  it  properly  related 
to  Jesus  Christ  and  His  purpose,  it  can  bring  no  evil, 
but  only  good.  It  does  not  mean  a  mere  fiat  righteous- 
ness, or  artificial  deliverance ;  but  lies  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  moral  energy  of  a  redemptive  Gospel. 
I.  Christ  came  to  reveal  salvation  to  us. 
If  one  were  to  ask  what  is  the  most  distinguishing 
mark  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  answer  would  have 
to  be  this :  it  reveals  God's  initiative  in  salvation.  While 
other  rehgions  represent  man  as  seeking  after  God, 
this  represents  God  as  seeking  man.  In  those  religions 
man,  sin-blinded  and  perverted  in  nature,  seeks  out  all 
kinds  of  gods  to  worship ;  in  this,  God,  in  the  person 
of  His  Son,  breaks  the  long  silence  of  the  ages  and 
speaks ;  bursts  like  a  sunrise  upon  the  astonished  gaze 

175 


176  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  man,  reveals  himself  as  a  God  of  holy  love  with  a 
boundless  compassion  for  men. 

Observe  now  the  power  of  the  contrast  between  God 
and  humanity  in  this  revealing  impulse  embodied  in 
the  career  of  Jesus.  Man  was  engaged  in  a  seeking 
and  saving  enterprise,  but  how  unspeakably  below  that 
of  God.  Individual  man,  seeking  and  saving  wealth, 
or  reputation  or  power.  The  Jews  even  with  their 
favoured  position  as  the  depositaries  of  God's  earlier 
revelation,  were  seeking  and  saving  the  letter  of  the 
law,  while  its  spirit  was  dead.  The  philosophers 
were  seeking  and  saving  their  various  rival  theories 
of  the  universe.  The  nations  were  seeking  and  saving 
political  power  and  influence.  Human  hearts  lay 
crushed  and  bleeding  everywhere.  Human  life,  de- 
spised and  rejected,  the  weak  and  wayward,  and  blind 
and  helpless  sat  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death  and 
gazed  pitifully  out  into  the  bleakness  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  night,  without  God  and  without  hope,  when 
suddenly,  like  the  clear  note  of  a  silver  trumpet, 
sweeter  than  that  ever  sounded  by  archangel  and  re- 
sounding through  the  corridors  of  the  soul  of  the 
despised  and  outcast  publican  Zaccheus,  and  thrilling 
it  as  no  human  souls  were  ever  thrilled  before,  came 
the  words,  "The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost." 

The  contrast  with  man's  mental  achievements  was 
equally  striking.  The  best  efforts  of  human  reason 
in  that  age  of  the  world  had  attained  this  view.  There 
is  a  God  somewhere,  we  know  not  where.  But  he  is 
outside  the  machinery  of  this  world,  which  moves  on 
its  ruthless  way.  Man  is  but  a  fly  or  a  frog  or  other 
insignificant  creature  who  may  be  caught  in  the 
machinery  and  crushed. 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       177 

Even  to-day  some  of  the  most  brilliant  writers  grope 
their  way  out  to  the  limits  of  the  universe  as  they  see 
it,  and  declare  that  there  is  no  love  or  pity  in  it.  It  is, 
they  declare,  a  scene  of  ruthless  conflict ;  a  struggle  for 
life;  a  fierce  conflict  for  supremacy.  No  quarter  is 
given,  none  received.  Nature  everywhere  is  "red  in 
tooth  and  claw  with  ravin'."  Cruelty,  cruelty,  cruelty 
is  written  all  over  the  face  of  nature.  As  for  man, 
says  one  of  these  writers,  the  whole  race  is  doomed. 
Nature  bears  us  on  in  a  chain  of  inviolable  law  of 
cause  and  effect.  We  are  on  an  express  train  one  of 
whose  rails  is  natural  law,  and  the  other  matter.  This 
train  is  drawn  by  an  engine  whose  motive  power  is 
kinetic  or  some  other  form  of  natural  energy.  We 
are  rushing  along  this  track  at  an  incredibly  rapid 
rate,  through  a  moonless  and  starless  night  towards  a 
bottomless  abyss  into  which  we  will  surely  plunge  at 
the  end. 

Another  writer  shrinking  in  horror  from  such  a  pic- 
ture, clutches  wildly  at  some  straw  of  hope,  and  says 
we  must  believe  that  somewhere  there  is  a  power, 
though  what  it  is  we  can  only  surmise.  We  are  like 
lost  travellers.  A  blinding  snowstorm  is  all  about  us, 
and  we  shiver  in  the  piercing  blast.  We  must  go  for- 
ward yet  we  know  not  where  to  go.  If  we  go  to  the 
right  we  may  fall  into  a  yawning  chasm  from  which 
there  is  no  deliverance.  If  to  the  left  who  knows  but 
that  we  shall  wander  further  from  safety  and  rest? 
Yet  if  we  stand  still,  we  are  doomed.  We  can  only 
plunge  forward  and  trust  that  somehow  we  will  ar- 
rive at  a  warm  fireside  and  food  and  shelter. 

How  pitiable  the  intellectual  failure  of  man  as  thus 
disclosed!  How  wondrous  and  joyous  the  revelation 
of  God  in  Christ  as  a  contrast! 


178  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

Even  religiously  man's  effort  seems  as  unavailing. 
Buddhism  is  at  once  the  most  perfect  and  the  most 
beautiful  and  the  saddest  of  all  the  human  attempts  to 
find  God.  Buddha  was  a  winsome  character,  who  felt 
the  pressure  of  the  misery  and  pain,  the  awful  burden 
of  human  existence.  His  one  remedy  for  all  was  to 
extinguish  desire.  Quench  desire,  all  desire.  Millions 
of  years,  in  many  forms  of  existence  and  spheres  of 
being  may  be  required.  But  this  is  the  only  road  to 
peace.  Suffering,  expiation  for  past  wrong-doing  will 
hound  a  man  through  the  wastes  of  existence,  will 
lash  him  with  a  whip  of  scorpions  until  at  length  he 
will  expire  like  a  candle,  or  be  reabsorbed  in  the  in- 
finite like  a  bottle  of  water  broken  in  the  ocean.  Sad 
indeed  is  the  wail  of  Buddha.  His  religion,  which  is 
to-day  the  religion  of  millions  upon  millions  in  India,  is 
one  of  the  emptiest  ever  offered  to  the  human  spirit, 
so  far  as  real  comfort  is  concerned.  It  knows  the  sting 
of  the  human  conscience,  but  no  balm  to  relieve  it.  It 
knows  darkness  and  limitation  of  human  ignorance, 
but  it  has  found  no  rift  in  the  enveloping  clouds.  It 
knows  human  weakness,  but  has  caught  not  even  a 
glimpse  of  a  little  finger,  much  less  of  an  arm  mighty 
to  save.  Strangest  of  all,  and  beyond  all  other  ethnic 
religions,  it  has  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  far  away  moral 
perfection  shining  like  a  dim  whiteness  beyond  the 
stars,  but  never  yet  has  it  dreamed  of  a  way  to  at- 
tain it. 

To  the  puzzled  intellect  and  to  the  broken  heart  of 
man  there  comes  a  voice.  To  the  weary  pessimist,  and 
to  the  desperate  wayfarer  in  the  storm,  afraid  of  the 
wilderness  and  perishing  with  the  cold,  and  most  of 
all  to  the  moral  struggler,  the  conscience-stricken,  who 
with  hopeless  hand  clings  to  a  lurid  spectral  faith  in 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       179 

the  extinction  of  life  and  desire — to  all  these  comes  the 
voice :  It  says  the  iron  chain  of  law  is  not  the  deepest 
fact.  Personality  is  above  law,  controls  law.  For  the 
Son  of  Man  came,  broke  into  the  on-going  world  from 
above.  It  says  the  apparent  cruelty  of  nature  is  not 
the  final  fact.  Love  is  the  heart  of  the  universe.  For 
the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  and  to  save.  It  says  ex- 
tinction of  desire  is  not  man's  destiny,  but  the  purifica- 
tion and  transformation  of  desire  and  a  blissful  immor- 
tality with  God.  It  speaks  across  the  gulf  and  says  to 
all  sorrowing  and  downcast  and  earnest  souls :  "O 
heart  of  man,  a  heart  beats  here ;  in  the  eternal  bosom 
are  pity  and  grace,  for  the  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 

For  observe  how  that  love  revealed  in  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man  is  elaborated  and  illumined  for  us  in 
the  three  parables  of  the  lost  coin,  the  lost  sheep  and 
the  lost  son.  I  think  those  interpreters  are  correct  who 
see  progress  and  unity  in  these  parables.  Each  parable, 
as  is  true  of  all  parables  indeed,  is  like  an  artist's  pic- 
ture in  which  the  light  is  concentrated  on  the  central 
figure,  while  the  remainder  of  the  group  lies  in  shadow. 
Each  parable  teaches  a  single  great  truth. 

The  lost  coin,  which  the  woman  with  lighted  candle 
sought  until  she  found,  teaches  that  man  has  value 
in  God's  sight ;  that  God  feels  himself  impoverished  if 
man  is  lost.  He  who  holdeth  the  wealth  of  the  world 
in  His  hands  has  unceasing  pain  and  sorrow  in  His 
heart  over  lost  men.  This  is  a  coin  which  He  fain 
would  recover  for  himself.  But  the  lost  coin  cannot 
fully  illustrate  man's  lost  condition,  because  it  is  a 
senseless  thing.  It  has  no  power  of  choice,  no  intelli- 
gence, no  moral  nature. 

Another  parable,  therefore,  develops  the  idea  for 


180  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

us.  The  lost  sheep  did  not  fall  from  its  owner's  hands 
and  roll  away  under  the  bed  or  cupboard.  It  was 
tempted  away.  It  was  heedless  and  thoughtless  and 
wandered  off  from  the  fold.  Thus  does  the  sinner 
wander.  Often  he  was  almost  as  thoughtless  and  heed- 
less in  it  as  the  sheep.  Perhaps  in  childhood,  but  dimly 
perceiving  the  wrongness  of  the  conduct,  he  fell  into 
temptation  until  away  from  safety  in  the  wilderness 
of  sin.  But  after  the  lost  sheep  goes  the  seeking  shep- 
herd into  the  depths  of  the  wilderness. 

But  the  last  parable  shows  the  cause  of  man's  lost 
condition.  The  prodigal  deliberately  chose  to  wander 
away.  Besides  he  must  deliberately  choose  to  return. 
The  sheep  would  never  choose  to  come  back  to  the 
fold.  But  the  prodigal,  melted  by  the  memory  of  the 
father's  heart  and  home,  lashed  by  the  sense  of  sin  and 
shame,  resolves,  and  acts  upon  his  resolves,  and  the 
parable  shows  the  boundless  love  of  the  father  who 
waits  and  yearns  for  the  wanderer. 

This,  then,  is  the  drama  of  redemption  set  forth  in 
parables :  God's  impoverishment  in  the  lost  coin ;  God's 
patient  and  persevering  quest  for  the  lost  sheep ;  God's 
boundless  welcome  to  the  wilful  wanderer  in  the  lost 
son.  This  is  the  revelation  of  salvation  brought  to  us 
by  the  Son  of  Man. 

II.  In  the  next  place,  Christ  came  to  effect  salvation 
for  us. 

Now  man's  lost  condition  made  necessary  a  great 
transaction,  and  included  in  my  text  must  be  the  idea 
not  merely  of  a  revealed,  but  also  of  an  achieved  salva- 
tion. Now  I  will  not  take  up  the  doctrine  of  sin  in 
any  of  its  various  speculative  conceptions.  There  is 
the  literary  and  aesthetic  conception  which  thinks  of  it 
as  a  disagreeable  hindrance  to  the  smooth  on-going 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       181 

of  the  social  machinery;  and  the  scientific  conception 
that  regards  it  as  merely  a  stage  in  man's  upward  prog- 
ress ;  and  there  is  the  theological  conception  which  con- 
nects it  with  heredity.  But  experience  in  the  light  of 
the  New  Testament  revelation  is  the  best  practical 
guide,  and  that  is  that  man  is  hopelessly  lost  without 
Christ.  It  is  man's  lost  condition  which  made  the 
whole  enterprise  of  redemption  necessary. 

This  fact  helps  us  understand  the  apparent  excess  of 
divine  attention  bestowed  upon  man  who  is  so  insignif- 
icant in  himself  and  inhabits  so  tiny  a  speck  of  a  planet 
in  the  boundless  universe  of  God.  It  is  due,  not  to  the 
value  of  this  as  compared  with  other  worlds,  but  to  its 
condition,  lost.  That  is  the  key  to  it  all.  Admit  if  you 
will,  that  this  world  is  the  least  of  worlds,  that  it  is 
just  a  little  Bethlehem  of  the  Universe,  an  out-of-the- 
way  hamlet,  while  the  great  metropolis  lies  yonder  in 
the  Milky  Way;  or  to  employ  the  figure  of  the  parable, 
that  man  is  the  smallest  coin  in  all  the  divine  treasury, 
a  mere  copper  piece ;  or  admitting,  if  you  insist  upon  it, 
that  man  is  the  least  of  God's  intelligent  beings,  that  in 
other  worlds  there  are  beings  by  the  side  of  whom  man 
is  but  a  pigmy  in  stature, — yet  when  this  is  all  said, 
there  remains  one  vastly  important  thing  unsaid,  and 
that  is  that  man  the  pigmy  was  a  lost  pigmy,  and  that 
although  he  was  the  least  of  the  coins  in  the  divine 
treasury,  yet  he  was  a  lost  coin,  and  that  lost  coin  bore 
the  image  and  superscription  of  God  Himself,  and  that 
though  this  earth  was  but  a  little  Bethlehem,  a  hamlet 
on  the  boundless  shores  of  space,  yet  it  was  a  hamlet 
which  sin  had  invaded,  a  spot  where  sorrow  sat,  and 
pain  and  misery  and  despair  brooded  and  where  the 
cry  of  the  weary  and  the  wandering  went  ever  up  to 
the  great  Father-heart  of  God.    That  is  the  great  fact 


182  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

which  exahed  this  world  into  an  interest  and  impor- 
tance for  God  beyond  any  other.  Over  against  this  we 
place  the  fact  of  God's  native  impulse  to  bless,  His 
inherent  and  inborn  longing  to  communicate  of  His 
own  ineffable  joy,  to  give  "beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of 
joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit 
of  heaviness,"  and  we  no  longer  wonder  that  the  great 
redemptive  enterprise  filled  His  being  with  that  over- 
flowing and  exuberant  purpose  and  love  that  resulted 
in  the  incarnation  of  His  Son. 

Then  too,  if  men  object  that  the  Divine  One  should 
empty  Himself  to  become  man,  that  it  implies  imper- 
fection in  God,  that  He  should  take  human  form, 
and  especially  that  it  implies  imperfection  that  He 
should  suffer,  (and  I  believe  that  He  did  suffer) — then 
the  reply  comes  clear  and  distinct  that,  leaving  out  the 
theoretical  and  speculative  suggestions  involved  here, 
the  truth  lies  in  the  other  direction,  viz. :  in  this,  if  in- 
carnation and  suffering  were  necessary  to  man's  re- 
demption, if  man  was  lost  and  incarnation  and  atone- 
ment were  necessary,  and  God  were  incapable  of  these, 
then  He  was  incapable  of  taking  care  of  His  own.  It 
would  imply  that  sin  had  created  a  situation  with 
which  He  could  not  cope.  It  would  imply  that  man 
had  fallen  into  a  gulf  of  woe  too  deep  for  the  divine 
arm  to  reach  him,  and  this  would  be  the  greatest  of 
imperfections.  It  would  imply  a  conflict  between  the 
impulse  of  love  which  wished  to  save,  and  the  impulse 
of  power  which  was  not  equal  to  the  task.  So  that 
the  capacity  to  empty  himself  and  become  incarnate, 
the  capacity  to  suffer  and  atone,  is  thetmark  of  infinite 
moral  perfection  in  God.  So  that  when  we  read,  "that 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  He  counted  it  not  a  thing  to 
be  grasped  to  be  on  an  equality  with  God,  but  emptied 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       183 

Himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in 
the  Hkeness  of  men;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as 
a  man,  He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient  even 
unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross,"  we  are  not 
to  shrink  in  incredulity  from  something  which  seems 
to  us  unworthy  of  the  Divine  One,  but  rather  should 
we  bow  in  adoration  as  we  see  unrolled  before  us,  as 
upon  the  scroll  of  revelation,  in  this  descent,  humilia- 
tion and  ascent  of  Christ,  the  unfolding  of  the  eternal 
riches,  the  glory  and  power  of  the  divine  nature  itself, 
the  throwing  open  of  the  doors  of  the  immeasurable 
treasure-house  of  the  divine  love. 

After  all,  what  was  the  meaning  of  that  self-empty- 
ing in  order  to  save  the  lost?  Was  it  that  He  actually 
put  off  divinity  ?  No.  That  limitation  must  be  viewed 
in  the  light  of  the  great  fact  that  man  was  made  in 
God's  image,  that  human  personality  and  divine  per- 
sonality are  alike,  one  is  as  the  sun  and  the  other  as  the 
reflection  of  the  sun  in  the  dew-drop.  He  could  not 
take  the  form  of  a  worm  or  a  lion  and  save  worms 
or  lions,  because  they  are  not  made  in  His  own  image, 
but  He  could  become  man  and  not  cease  to  be  God,  just 
as  man  can  become  divine  and  not  cease  to  be  man. 

Then,  too.  His  limitation  was  limitation  for  a  special 
purpose,  redemption.  His  aim  was  to  concentrate  His 
divine  energies,  not  to  lay  them  off,  divest  Himself 
of  them.  The  perfection  of  human  thought  and  knowl- 
edge is  when  a  man  concentrates  perfectly,  ceases 
mental  activity  in  diverse  directions  in  order  to  accom- 
plish a  result  in  one  direction.  The  great  merchant 
with  a  dozen  factories  or  department  stores  has  the 
knowledge  of  them  all  at  his  fingers'  ends — every 
detail  of  every  department  of  a  vast  and  complicated 
business.     But  one  day  his  eight-year-old  and  only 


184  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

son  is  run  over  by  a  passing  vehicle.  The  merchant 
drops  all  else  and  hastens  to  the  bedside,  and  a  great 
anguish  and  a  great  love  and  yearning  seizes  him  as 
he  watches  the  tides  of  blood  unchecked,  flowing 
from  the  wounds  of  his  child,  and  a  great  purpose 
masters  him.  Factories  and  stores  are  now  forgotten, 
money  making  no  longer  interests  him.  Away  back 
in  the  recesses  of  his  being  that  knowledge  and  that 
energy  retire,  and  he  is  possessed  by  sympathy  and 
yearning  and  love  for  the  little  lad  whom  he  may 
lose.  He  empties  himself  of  all  else.  He  lays  aside 
the  career  of  the  merchant.  The  form  of  a  captain 
of  industry,  of  a  prince  of  commerce,  he  lays  aside — 
and  all  his  skill  and  wealth  and  time  and  thought  are 
poured  out  around  the  little  life  to  save  it.  This  is 
his  self -emptying.  All  this  knowledge  and  commercial 
skill  will  surge  back  when  the  little  life  is  safe  and 
the  physician  says  he  will  recover.  Until  then,  that 
other  life  was  as  if  it  was  not  to  him. 

Such  was  the  self-emptying  of  Jesus.  The  incar- 
nation was  the  self-emptying  of  the  divine  pity,  of 
redemptive  power  and  grace.  He  sat  by  the  bedside, 
His  hand  on  the  fevered  pulse  of  humanity,  forgetful 
of  the  heavenly  glory,  with  all  that  former  splendour 
somewhere  back  in  the  depths  of  His  being,  until  the 
patient  was  better. 

Now  what  did  Christ  effect  for  us  in  His  atoning 
death?  His  seeking  and  saving  work  cannot  be  con- 
sidered fully  without  regard  to  this  question. 

One  remarkable  fact  about  this  matter  strikes  the 
reader  of  the  Gospels,  and  that  is  the  reserve  of  Jesus 
on  the  cost  of  atonement.  He  will  die,  He  will  give 
His  life  a  ransom  for  many,  so  much  He  expressly 
declares.     But   He   says  little  of  the  darkness   and 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       185 

agony,  the  loneliness  and  desolation.  Why  this  reti- 
cence, this  reserve,  this  silence?  I  think  it  was  a 
wondrous  mark  of  His  grace  and  delicacy.  He  will 
not  obtrude  upon  the  lost,  what  it  cost  Him  to  redeem 
them.  He  will  leave  them,  under  the  guidance  of  His 
Spirit,  to  discover  this  for  themselves. 

Every  one  feels  the  fitness  of  this  way  of  bearing, 
of  enduring,  and  not  talking  about  it.  When  the 
German  prince  visited  America,  New  York  City  gave 
him  a  banquet.  The  daily  papers  talked  much  of  its 
cost.  Why,  they  said,  we  gave  him  a  most  magnificent 
banquet.  It  cost  a  hundred  thousand  dollars.  A  quiet 
old  lady  somewhere  was  reported  as  saying,  "That 
is  very  indelicate.  It  is  not  for  us  to  boast  of  what 
our  banquet  cost  us  to  entertain  our  guest.  Let  him 
tell  of  that."  In  his  story,  "The  Virginian,"  Owen 
Wister  makes  his  splendid  Virginian  cowboy  criticize 
the  poet  Browning.  The  young  lady  had  read  to  him 
the  poem  describing  the  heroic  act  of  a  young  soldier 
of  Napoleon  in  battle  in  which  he  is  mortally  wounded. 
Returning  with  a  message  to  the  general  and  deliver- 
ing it.  Napoleon  exclaims,  "You're  wounded."  "Nay, 
sire,  not  wounded  but  killed,"  the  poet  represents  the 
soldier  as  replying.  The  view  of  the  cowboy  was 
that  that  was  a  false  note.  "If  that  fellow  had  the  grit 
to  do  that  deed,  he  would  have  had  the  grit  to  have 
died  without  talking  about  it." 

At  any  rate,  as  one  has  said,  "Heroes  are  not  their 
own  heralds."  Christ  was  to  have  other  apostles  and 
witnesses.  Hence  we  are  not  surprised  that  there  is 
little  in  the  Gospels  on  the  subject.  Accordingly  we 
find  in  the  epistles  that  the  cost  is  much  dwelt  upon 
by  Paul  and  John  and  Peter.  What,  then,  did  these 
men  find,  the  men  of  inspired  faith  in  the  death  of 


186  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Christ  for  our  redemption?  A  very  brief  reply  is  all 
we  can  give. 

For  one  thing  they  saw  in  Christ's  death  more  than 
a  moral  spectacle  to  move  men  to  repentance.  It  was 
that,  but  a  deep  necessity  lay  behind  it.  Some  deny 
this  necessity  and  assert  that  the  cross  is  simply  a 
moral  exhibition,  an  endurance  of  suffering  as  a  proof 
of  love,  set  forth  as  a  means  of  breaking  the  human 
heart  and  leading  men  to  return  to  God.  But  this 
"impressionist"  view  of  the  atonement  is  not  a  com- 
plete account  of  it.  It  was  a  deeper  thing  than  that. 
Imagine,  if  you  can,  a  man  saying  to  his  wayward 
children,  "Now,  my  children,  I  am  going  to  make  an 
exhibition  of  my  love  to  you  by  burning  my  hand  to 
a  crisp  in  the  fire."  Or  a  shepherd  saying,  "Now  I 
will  make  a  journey  through  the  wilderness  and  the 
night,  through  briars  and  quagmires,  not  to  rescue  a 
lost  sheep,  but  to  convince  my  sheep  that  I  love  them." 
You  cannot  imagine  a  sane  shepherd  or  father  so  act- 
ing.   Neither  can  we  imagine  Christ  or  God  so  acting. 

The  cross  stands  for  more  than  that.  The  cross  em- 
bodies two  impulses  or  qualities  in  God,  one  the  self- 
imparting,  the  other  the  self -preserving  impulse.  It 
is  God's  nature  to  be  holy.  He  must  defend  Himself 
against  unholy  rebellion.  This  is  the  self-preserving 
impulse.  It  is  God's  nature  to  give,  to  bless,  to  save. 
This  is  the  self-imparting  impulse.  Christ's  death 
united  the  two.  God  does  not  love  us  because  Christ 
died  for  us.  Christ  died  for  us  because  God  loves  us. 
Christ  died  to  make  man  holy ;  but  first  of  all  He  died 
because  God  is  holy.  One  has  well  said,  "God  is  love 
and  law  is  the  way  He  loves  us ;  God  is  law  and  love 
is  the  way  He  rules  us." 

We  usually  say  love  Is  the  sinner's  hope,  and  holi- 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       187 

ness  is  the  sinner's  fear.  Tliis  is  true.  But  the  reverse 
is  also  true.  Love  is  the  sinner's  fear  because  love 
exacts,  demands,  will  not  be  content  with  anything 
but  ideal  perfection  in  the  loved  one.  The  loved  one 
must  reflect  the  image  of  the  divine  lover  like  a  mirror 
without  a  flaw.  Hence  love  seeks  out  every  defect, 
labours  with  infinite  patience  to  perfect  every  detail 
of  character.  God's  holiness,  again,  is  the  sinner's 
hope.  For  God's  holiness  cannot  endure  the  presence 
of  sin  which  brings  misery  and  eternal  ruin  to  the 
sinner. 

This,  then,  was  the  great  transaction  of  Calvary, 
the  union  in  a  perfect  act  of  suffering  and  obedience, 
of  the  two  supreme  ethical  demands  of  God's  nature 
and  man's  lost  estate.  This  explains  the  Gethsemane 
cup  which  He  raised  to  His  lips  and  looking  into  it 
twice,  shrank  in  horror  from  its  bitterness.  This  ex- 
plains the  cry  of  desolation  on  the  cross  itself: 

"Yea  once  Immanuel's  orphaned  cry 
The  Universe  hath  shaken, 
It  went  up  single,  echoless. 
My  God,  I  am  forsaken! 

"It  went  up  from  the  holy's  lips 
Amid  His  lost  creation. 
That  of  the  lost  no  son  should  use 
Those  words  of  desolation." 

HI.  Christ  came,  we  observe  next,  to  be  salvation 
in  us.  No  one  understands  all  that  Is  meant  by  the 
seeking  and  saving  of  Christ  who  does  not  take  the 
full  Biblical  view.  Salvation  is  a  past  thing,  the  life 
and  death  of  Jesus.    Salvation  is  a  future  thing,  resur- 


188  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

rection  and  glorification ;  but  salvation  is  also  a  present 
thing,  the  victorious  and  living  Christ  within  us. 

A  new  grasp  of  this  truth  is  the  most  urgent  need 
of  Christians  to-day.  The  reality,  the  vitality,  the 
energy  of  a  present  and  a  living  Christ  in  the  soul. 
A  power  from  without  and  above  coming  into  our 
lives  and  reversing  them.  But  we  cannot  suppress  or 
conquer  the  power  of  sin  within  us  or  without  us. 
Within  us  we  feel  its  sting  in  conscience,  and  con- 
science masters  us  and  will  not  be  silenced.  By  my 
will  I  can  control  my  physical  nature,  command  my 
bodily  actions.  By  my  will  I  can  control,  in  a  measure, 
my  feelings,  my  emotional  nature;  by  my  will  I  can 
control  my  mental  nature ;  I  can  compel  attention  upon 
a  given  subject.  But  by  my  will  I  cannot  control  my 
moral  nature.  Conscience  will  not  yield  to  my  will, 
I  need  a  master. 

Nor  can  I  control  sin  without  me.  As  one  has  said, 
sin  is  not  merely  infirmity,  nor  a  mistake,  nor  a  step 
upwards,  it  is  a  power  in  reversed  action.  As  a  sailor 
knows  the  resistance  of  the  adverse  wind  and  tide, 
as  the  tunnel  builder  knows  the  resistance  of  the 
granite  in  the  heart  of  the  mountain ;  as  the  mountain 
climber  knows  the  resistance  of  gravitation,  so  I  know 
and  feel  the  power  of  sin  resisting  me  and  overcoming 
me.  This  is  what  I  find  sin  to  be  as  a  law  of  nature. 
I  need  an  inward  and  an  outward  deliverer. 

Yet  there  are  men  who  tell  me  I  am  to  be  deliv- 
ered, not  by  a  personal  Redeemer  energizing  my  will, 
but  by  law.  When  I  throw  a  handful  of  rusty  pens, 
and  a  handful  of  tiny  bits  of  blotting  paper  out  of 
my  window,  the  wind  and  gravitation  determine  the 
place  where  both  will  rest.  The  pens  will  fall  straight 
down;  the  paper  will  be  carried  away  to  its  place. 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       189 

Law,  fixed  and  immutable,  determines  all.  I  am  held 
in  its  clutches  as  in  a  vise !    So  I  am  told. 

There  is  a  law  of  grace  as  well  as  a  law  of  nature. 
There  is  a  law  of  the  spirit  as  well  as  of  the  flesh. 
There  is  a  law  of  personal  action  exerted  in  a  realm 
of  personal  beings,  as  well  as  a  law  of  physical  action 
exerted  in  a  closed  system  of  physical  forces.  This 
personal  action  is  also  grace.  It  is  Christ  within  you, 
the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God.  It  is 
Christ  within  you  the  hope  of  glory. 

Drummond  compares  the  living  Christ  to  the  daily 
manna  of  the  Israelites  in  their  wilderness  wander- 
ings, and  the  dying  Christ  to  the  brazen  serpent.  Now 
one  great  mistake  of  men  has  been  in  putting  the  ser- 
pent for  the  manna  and  the  manna  for  the  serpent. 
The  two  theologies  have  done  this.  The  new  puts 
the  manna  in  the  place  of  the  serpent,  and  the  old 
the  serpent  over  the  manna.  The  brazen  serpent 
cured  the  bite  of  the  real  serpent,  but  could  not  sus- 
tain the  life  of  the  healed  one.  The  cross  redeemed 
from  the  curse  of  the  law,  but  the  living,  energizing 
Christ  in  the  soul  alone  gives  triumph  over  all  our 
foes.  We  are  not  to  look  at  the  cross  alone  then  for 
the  exhibition  of  grace ;  but  to  the  whole  career  of  the 
transformed  man's  life. 

IV.  Now  I  come  to  my  last  point,  which  is,  that 
Christ  not  only  came  to  reveal  salvation  to  us,  and 
to  effect  salvation  for  us,  and  to  be  salvation  in  us. 
He  came  also  to  achieve  salvation  through  us. 

There  is  one  infallible  proof  that  that  salvation 
has  been  revealed  to,  effected  for  and  in  us,  and  that 
is  that  it  now  operates  through  us.  The  one  evidence 
above  all  others  that  we  are  Christ's  is  the  reproduc- 
tion in  us  of  His  redemptive  passion.     A  modern 


190  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

writer  represents  a  character  In  a  certain  story  as 
having  a  vision  of  the  creation  by  himself  of  the 
world.  Power  is  given  to  his  will  to  call  a  world 
into  being.  His  fingers  are  endowed  with  skill  to 
mould  it  into  symmetry  and  beauty.  It  is  peopled  by 
his  creative  power  with  beings  fair  and  glorious  to 
look  upon,  and  spotless  it  rolls  away  from  his  hands 
into  a  splendid  career.  Thus  he  is  permitted  to  know 
the  creator's  love  of  his  own  handiwork.  But  then 
the  spoiler  comes.  The  blight  and  shadow  fall  upon 
that  world  and  it  wanders  in  sin  and  woe;  and  now 
he  knows  the  creator's  indignation  against  the  spoiler. 
His  sympathy  with  His  suffering  creatures,  and  His 
irresistible  redemptive  impulse. 

Now  Christ's  redemption  fails  of  its  object  unless 
it  reproduces  in  us  His  own  and  God's  redemptive 
passion.  This  is  the  highest  thing  in  God,  the  most 
glorious.  It  comes  only  through  experience  of  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ.  Some  things  we  learn 
concerning  God  in  other  ways.  His  pity  for  our 
foolish  and  childish  ways,  His  great  patience  with  us 
we  learn  from  our  own  human  fatherhood.  Mr. 
Patmore's  little  poem  brings  this  out,  as  Dr.  Forsyth 
has  pointed  out.  "He  had  punished  his  little  son  and 
put  him  to  bed,  his  mother,  who  was  patient,  being 
dead."  Sore  himself,  he  went  to  see  the  child,  and 
found  him  asleep  with  all  the  queer  and  trivial  con- 
tents of  a  little  boy's  pocket  Set  out  beside  him  to 
comfort  him. 

"So  when  that  night  I  prayed 
To  God,  I  wept,  and  said: 
Ah !  when  at  last  we  lie  with  tranced  breath, 
Not  vexing  Thee  In  death, 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       191 

And  Thou  rememberest  of  what  toys 

We  made  our  joys, 

How  weakly  understood 

Thy  great  commanded  good — 

Then,  Fatherly  not  less 

Than  I  whom  Thou  hast  moulded  from  its  clay 

Thou'lt  leave  Thy  wrath  and  say, 

I  will  be  sorry  for  their  childishness." 

Thus  does  earthly  experience  of  fatherhood  teach 
us  some  things.  But  when  Christ's  redemption  be- 
comes ours  by  experience,  we  enter  into  a  greater 
deep  of  fatherhood  and  sonship,  and  that  is  not  how 
fatherhood  is  pitiful  and  kind  toward  foolish  and 
ignorant  children  merely,  but  how  divine  fatherhood 
and  sonship  unite  in  a  mighty  purpose  full  of  passion 
and  sacrifice  to  redeem — a  passion  which  does  not 
spend  itself  until  the  sins  of  the  world  have  in  some 
strange,  mysterious  way  become  our  own  burden  and 
the  salvation  of  men  our  aim. 

But  at  once  when  that  saving  love  has  become  ours 
and  we  understand,  it  masters  us  and  we  share  in 
God's  creative,  redemptive,  paternal  passion  towards 
the  lost  world.  With  Him  we  feel  impoverished  when 
the  coin  is  lost,  and  we  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  in 
the  fold  to  go  after  the  wanderer,  and  join  in  the  glad 
celebration  when  the  prodigal  returns.  To  us  money 
becomes  glorified  because  it  becomes  a  means  of  ex- 
pressing and  of  exerting  this  redemptive  passion. 
Talent  and  time  and  the  whole  earthly  career  are 
transfigured  because  they  are  opportunities  to  carry 
on  the  sublime  enterprise.  With  Paul  we  exclaim,  not 
as  in  the  translation,  "This  one  thing  I  do,"  but  rather 
in  his  laconic  and  intense  brevity — "but  one  thing" — 


192  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

meaning  there  is  but  one  thing  to  do,  to  think,  to  plan, 
to  execute.  One  thing  fills  the  horizon  of  my  life  and 
experience.    This  is  his  meaning. 

I  suppose  this  is  why  the  message  of  redemption 
is  confined  to  the  human  subjects  of  it — that  nothing 
except  an  experience  of  it  can  create  an  energy  ade- 
quate to  accomplish  redemption  in  others,  and  because 
our  own  redemption  is  completed  in  our  redemptive 
service. 

It  is  often  said,  you  know,  that  angels  are  not  per- 
mitted to  carry  on  this  redemptive  enterprise.  But 
if  you  study  the  book  of  Revelation  carefully  you  dis- 
cover that  they  have  much  to  do  with  it.  Yet  their 
service  is  limited  and  imperfect  and  must  ever  be 
finished  and  made  complete  by  the  redeemed  them- 
selves. In  the  eighth  chapter,  for  example,  angels 
ofifer  incense  before  the  altar  out  of  a  golden  censer. 
But  the  incense  is  without  effect  unless  mingled  with 
the  prayers  of  the  saints.  In  chapters  fifteen  and  six- 
teen angels  have  the  seven  plagues  and  pour  out  the 
seven  bowls  of  wrath,  and  in  one  place  (chapter  lo) 
an  angel,  arrayed  in  a  cloud  with  a  rainbow  about 
his  head,  descends  to  earth  and  stands  with  one  foot 
on  sea  and  one  on  land,  holding  a  book  in  his  hand. 
"Now,"  you  say,  "an  angel  will  surely  preach."  But 
no.  He  hands  the  book  to  John  the  prophet,  the  re- 
deemed sinner  who  eats  it,  experiences  it,  and  then 
prophesies  to  many  nations. 

But  there  is  one  place  where  even  more  closely 
still  an  angel  seems  to  come  to  this  great  task  (chap- 
ter 14:6).  An  angel  is  seen  flying  in  mid-heaven,  of 
whom  it  is  declared  that  he  has  the  eternal  good  tid- 
ings to  proclaim  unto  them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth. 
And  now  at  last  with  bated  breath  and  rapt  attention 


THE  REDEMPTIVE  MISSION       193 

you  listen  for  an  angelic  sermon.  But  again  we  are 
doomed  to  disappointment.  For  not  one  word  of  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  do  we  hear  but 
this :  "Fear  God  and  give  him  glory :  for  the  hour  of 
his  judgment  is  come;  and  worship  him  that  made 
heaven  and  earth  and  the  sea  and  the  fountains  of 
waters." 

Thus  we  never  hear  angelic  announcement  of  the 
great  secret  of  the  Son  of  Man,  His  redemptive  love, 
and  I  suppose  the  reason  is  that : 

"None  of  the  angels  ever  knew 
How  deep  were  the  waters  crossed, 
Nor  how  dark  was  the  night 
The  Lord  passed  through 
Ere  He  found  the  sheep  that  was  lost." 

We  the  redeemed  sinners  do  not  and  cannot  know 
fully  all  the  meaning  of  his  sacrifice.  And  yet  we  do 
know  in  part  with  a  genuine  knowledge  the  meaning 
of  redemption.  And  it  is  because  we  know  that  He 
has  committed  to  us  the  great  task  of  witnessing  to 
His  redeeming  love. 


XIX 

HE  CAME  TO  HIMSELF 
Luke  15:  17 — "He  came  to  himself." 

WHEN  the  prodigal  said,  "Father,  give  me  the 
portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to  me,"  and 
left  home  to  enjoy  his  inheritance,  he  fol- 
lowed "his  bent."  He  yielded  to  an  impulse  within 
which  urged  him  to  indulge  himself.  He  followed  his 
bent.  But  by  and  by  he  spent  all  and  came  into  dire 
want  and  distress.  He  was  willing  to  eat  the  food 
of  swine.  Then  he  said,  "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my 
father."  Again  he  followed  his  bent  in  a  deeper,  truer 
sense.  It  was  then  he  came  to  himself.  Men  who 
have  studied  the  human  mind  scientifically  have  given 
us  a  phrase  like  that  I  have  used.  They  speak  not 
of  a  man's  "bent"  in  the  ordinary  popular  sense.  They 
speak  rather  of  the  curve  of  his  character  or  of  in- 
dividuality. When  you  look  at  a  human  life  in  its 
general  outline  or  tendency,  you  discover  its  curve. 
Is  the  man  predominantly  ambitious?  Or  is  he  mag- 
nanimous? Is  he  covetous  and  grasping?  The  curve 
is  the  main  line  or  tendency.  Now  when  you  can  get 
down  to  the  bottom  of  a  human  life  and  find  out  its 
deepest  tendency,  you  find  the  real  man. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  has  said  that  when  John 
and  James  are  engaged  in  a  conversation,  there  are 
really  six  people  present,  John  as  John  thinks  of  him- 
self, John  as  James  thinks  of  him,  and  John  as  he 

194 


HE  CAME  TO  HIMSELF  195 

really  is.  In  like  manner,  there  are  three  Jameses. 
No  man's  deeper  nature  comes  to  the  light  until  he 
finds  himself  in  a  religious  way. 

Now  the  text  says  the  prodigal  after  long  wander- 
ing "came  to  himself."  The  real  meaning  of  the  state- 
ment is  that  he  discovered  himself  to  be  what  he  had 
not  before  suspected.  From  this  we  may  learn  a  great 
lesson  applicable  to  us  all. 

Observe  first,  then,  that  for  a  man  to  come  to  him- 
self is  self-discovery,  is  to  find  the  deepest  law  of  his 
being.  What  was  it  the  prodigal  found  in  finding 
himself?  He  found  this:  that  the  make  of  his  own 
soul  agreed  with  the  make  of  the  universe.  The 
universe  may  be  likened  to  a  series  of  concentric  rain- 
bows. The  outside  rainbow,  vast  and  comprehensive, 
embracing  all  the  others,  is  God.  Marvellously  rich  in 
power,  wisdom,  love,  righteousness,  and  truth,  the 
wondrous  colours  in  the  rainbow  of  His  nature  shine 
out  to  eyes  which  can  see  them.  Inside  this  rainbow  of 
the  divine  nature  itself  is  the  smaller  rainbow  of  His 
creation,  the  physical  universe.  The  same  qualities 
and  attributes  are  seen,  more  dimly,  but  nevertheless 
the  same,  in  creation  as  in  God.  The  invisible  things 
of  God,  since  the  foundation  of  the  world  are  clearly 
seen  in  the  world  about,  even  His  eternal  power  and 
Godhead.  So  Paul  declares.  Now  inside  the  rainbow 
of  creation  is  yet  a  smaller  bow  reproducing  again  the 
same  colours,  man  himself.  Man's  true  nature  repro- 
duces the  seven  colours  in  God's  nature.  Love  in  man 
answers  to  love  in  God ;  will  answers  to  will ;  right- 
eousness answers  to  righteousness ;  power  answers  to 
power.  So  in  all  the  manifoldness  of  God's  man's 
nature;  they  are  not  the  same  in  degree,  but  they  are 
the  same  in  kind. 


196  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Now  when  the  prodigal  came  to  himself,  he  dis- 
covered that  his  own  nature  was  made  on  the  same 
principle  that  the  universe  is  made  upon.  He  dis- 
covered that  the  curve  of  his  nature  was  the  same 
as  the  curve  of  God's  nature  and  that  in  choosing  a 
self-indulgent,  wayward,  wasteful  life  he  was  trying 
to  reverse  the  curve  of  his  nature.  He  found  that 
he  was  made  to  be  a  Son  and  not  a  prodigal,  and 
that  as  a  consequence  to  try  to  live  a  prodigal  while 
made  to  be  a  son  was  misery  and  ruin.  A  life  of  sin 
and  a  life  of  sonship  are  contradictory  ideas.  The 
great  and  wondrous  truth  about  God  is  that  He  is 
Father.  This  is  the  richest  and  most  brilliant  colour 
in  the  rainbow  of  His  nature.  The  great  and  wondrous 
truth  about  the  prodigal  was  that  he  was  made  to  be 
a  son.  The  filial  in  him  was  the  brilhant  colour  answer- 
ing to  the  paternal  in  God.  This  was  his  discovery 
when  he  came  to  himself.  He  said,  "I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  father." 

All  prodigals  violate  this  great  truth,  that  their  souls 
are  constituted  as  God  is  constituted.  They  always 
come  to  the  swine  and  husks.  Until  they  reassert 
their  own  natures,  they  find  loss  and  sorrow.  An  in- 
cident will  illustrate  the  point.  A  church  member,  a 
beautiful  singer  and  earnest  Christian,  apparently,  fell 
into  a  great  sin.  He  tried  to  take  his  own  life  in  his 
despair.  As  his  pastor,  I  urged  repentance  and  con- 
fession. He  indignantly  refused  and  said  hard  things 
about  his  brethren.  He  said  there  was  a  devil  in  him 
and  he  was  afraid  he  could  never  cast  him  out.  But 
some  one  knew  there  was  also  an  angel  there.  I  ap- 
pealed to  his  sense  of  sonship  to  God  and  portrayed 
as  best  I  could  the  nobility  of  confession  and  repent- 
ance.   He  seemed  to  be  moved  by  my  words,  and  on 


HE  CAME  TO  HIMSELF  197 

the  next  Sabbath  night  he  was  in  his  place  in  the  choir. 
He  sang  a  solo  in  the  solemn  hush  of  that  evening 
hour,  and  the  entire  congregation  recognized  the  song 
as  his  confession  and  return.  It  was  a  song  so  simple, 
so  pointed,  and  sung  with  such  a  pathos  and  power 
that  none  could  mistake  its  meaning.  It  was  the 
familiar  song: 

"The  mistakes  of  my  life  have  been  many, 
The  sins  of  my  heart  have  been  more. 
But  when  the  dear  Saviour  shall  bid  me  come  in 
I  will  enter  the  open  door." 

Here  again  was  one  letting  the  filial  in  his  own 
nature  answer  to  the  paternal  in  God.  It  was  a  prodi- 
gal recognizing  the  curve  and  colours  in  the  rainbow 
of  his  being  as  the  same  as  those  in  God's,  and  pro- 
claiming the  great  truth  that  no  soul  can  ignore  its 
own  make ;  no  soul  can  reverse  the  curve  of  its  being 
and  remain  happy. 

In  his  poem,  Paracelsus,  Robert  Browning  teaches 
this  great  truth.  You  remember  how  Paracelsus  sets 
out  in  life  to  discover  the  great  secret  and  win  the 
great  prize.  He  is  swayed  by  ambition  for  power. 
He  compares  himself,  about  to  take  the  plunge  into 
life,  to  a  pearl-diver.  There  are  two  supreme  moments 
in  the  experience  of  the  pearl-diver;  one,  when  a 
pauper  he  stands  ready  to  plunge  into  the  sea;  the 
other,  when  a  prince  he  rises  with  his  pearl.  At  the 
end  of  the  poem  he  comes  forth  a  disappointed  man, 
and  he  gives  the  reason  for  it.  It  was  the  love  of 
power.    He  says : 

"I  failed:   I  gazed  on  power  till  I  grew  blind. 
Power;  I  could  not  take  my  eyes  from  that: 


198  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

That  only  I  thought  should  be  preserved,  increased 
At  any  risk,  displayed,  struck  out  at  once — 
The  sign  and  note  and  character  of  man." 

But  power  is  not  the  only  colour  in  the  rainbow  of 
the  universe.  Power  does  not  satisfy  unless  joined 
with  love.     Again  he  says: 

"I  learned  my  own  deep  error;  love's  undoing 
Taught  me  the  worth  of  love  in  man's  estate, 
And  what  proportion  love  should  hold  with  power 
In  his  right  constitution;  love  preceding 
Power,  and  with  much  power,  always  much  more  love, 
And  earnest  for  new  power  to  set  love  free." 

Ah,  there  the  rainbow  colours  flash  out.  Power  to 
set  love  free,  that  is  the  use  of  power.  This  is  the 
use  of  wealth,  and  health  and  place  and  influence, 
education  and  genius.  Power  to  set  love  free.  This 
the  prodigal  found  who  sought  only  power.  This  the 
prodigal  found  who  sought  only  self-indulgence.  All 
God's  power  is  power  used  to  set  love  free  and  we, 
as  Sons,  should  copy  Him.  The  Gospel  is  declared 
to  be  power.  But  it  is  power  to  set  love  free ;  power 
is  used  to  manifest  love.  This  is  the  curve  of  the 
universe  and  the  curve  of  man's  nature. 

A  boy  attended  a  beautiful  exhibition  representing 
some  great  historical  events  in  the  form  of  tableux. 
He  fell  asleep  before  the  performance  began  and  did 
not  wake  until  it  was  over.  Next  morning  he  spoke 
with  enthusiasm  of  the  show.  Inquiry  developed  the 
fact  that  he  had  reference  to  the  pictures  on  the  drop 
curtain  which  he  saw  before  he  went  to  sleep  and 
after  he  was  awakened.    He  slept  before  the  curtain 


HE  CAME  TO  HIMSELF  199 

was  foiled  up  and  until  after  it  was  rolled  down.  He 
had  never  laid  eyes  on  the  real  performance.  All 
who  waste  their  substance  in  riotous  living  have  that 
experience.  They  think  they  see  the  meaning  of  life. 
They  never  once  behold  life's  real  meaning.  They 
destroy  themselves  by  an  illusion. 

There  is  the  intellectual  prodigal  who  wanders 
from  God  in  his  theory  of  the  universe.  He  goes 
away  from  the  Father  in  thought.  What  a  strange 
mistake  is  made  by  the  materialist!  He  is  an  intel- 
lectual prodigal.  If  he  would  look  within  at  his  own 
personality,  he  would  find  the  real  explanation  of  the 
world.  Instead,  he  chooses  the  clod.  He  says  there 
is  nothing  greater  nor  better  than  a  clod,  except  per- 
haps all  the  clods  of  the  world  rolled  In  one.  Nature 
is  simply  a  big  clod.  There  is  a  little  life  here  and 
there,  it  is  true,  a  blossom  here,  a  bird  there,  a  man 
yonder.  But  the  blossom  will  fade  and  the  bird  lose 
its  song,  and  man  lose  his  intelligence.  All  will  cease 
except  the  clod  part  of  our  nature.  H  you  make  of 
nature  a  series  of  concentric  rainbows  and  the  smaller 
ones  reproduce  the  curve  and  seven  colours  of  the 
outside  one,  says  the  materialist,  then  you  must  get 
your  outer  rainbow  from  the  clod,  with  its  matter, 
force  and  motion.  Man  is  a  breathing  clod ;  the  planet 
on  which  we  live  is  a  rotating  clod,  and  the  sun  is  a 
flaming  clod,  and  all  the  vast  assemblage  of  worlds 
in  space  are  simply  clods  In  motion. 

Now  this  method  of  explaining  the  world  is  very 
uncalled  for  and  illogical.  Why  select  the  clod,  the 
lowest  and  poorest  thing  we  know  anything  about, 
and  reconstruct  nature  out  of  that?  Why  not  take 
the  human  spirit,  with  Its  longing  and  conviction  of 
immortality,  with  its  Intelligence  and  will  and  moral 


200  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

nature,  its  personality  as  the  starting  point.  This 
would  lead  directly  to  the  Father.  In  choosing  the 
clod  instead  of  man  as  the  key  to  the  world,  he  adopts 
a  strange  course.  You  offer  him  a  weed  and  flower 
and  he  chooses  the  weed.  You  offer  him  a  pebble  and 
a  ruby  and  he  selects  the  pebble.  You  offer  him  brass 
and  gold  and  he  chooses  brass.  You  hold  out  to  him 
a  cinder  and  a  lamp  and  he  says,  "I  prefer  the  cinder." 
You  point  him  to  a  pathway  leading  upward  and  shin- 
ing with  a  light  supernal  as  it  passes  beyond  the  stars 
to  the  Father's  house  and  at  the  same  time  a  blind 
alley  leading  nowhere  and  he  chooses  the  blind  alley. 

No  wonder  materialism  is  waning.  Prof.  Haeckel 
is  almost  the  sole  survivor  of  that  philosophy  among 
prominent  men.    And  he  is  like  the 

"Boy  that  stood  on  the  burning  deck 
Whence  all  but  he  had  fled, 
The  flames  that  lit  the  battle  wreck 
Shone  round  him  o'er  the  dead." 

Materialism  is  the  attempt  to  feed  the  soul  on  dirt. 
It  empties  the  world  of  all  hope.  It  is  the  mother 
of  despair.  With  it  as  our  guide,  we  feel  as  the 
Ancient  Mariner  felt: 

"Alone,  alone,  all,  all  alone, 
Alone  on  a  wide,  wide  sea. 
And  never  a  Saint  took  pity  on 
My  soul  in  agony. 

"The  many  men  so  beautiful, 
And  they  all  dead  did  lie. 
And  a  thousand,  thousand,  slimy  things 
Lived  on  and  so  did  I. 


HE   CAME  TO  HIMSELF  201 

"I  looked  to  heaven  and  tried  to  pray, 
But  or  ever  a  prayer  had  gusht, 
A  wicked  whisper  came  and  made 
My  heart  as  dry  as  dust." 

Now,  we  do  not  read  nature  aright  when  we  stop 
Avith  the  clod.  Behind  the  curtain  of  matter  shines 
the  form  of  God  our  Father.  The  prophet  whom 
God  called  into  the  mountain  heard  first  a  wind,  and 
then  felt  an  earthquake,  and  after  the  earthquake  a 
fire.  But  God  was  in  none  of  these.  After  the  fire 
came  a  still  small  voice,  which  was  God's  voice. 
(I  Kings  19 :  II.)  It  was  something  human  answering 
to  the  human  in  us.  It  was  God  the  Father  answer- 
ing to  the  voice  of  the  son  within  us.  It  was  the  rain- 
bow of  the  divine  nature  flashing  out  in  response  to 
the  colours  in  our  human  nature.  And,  oh,  how  that 
voice  sounds  everywhere  in  the  world  since  Christ 
revealed  to  us  the  Father. 

But,  after  all,  the  chief  cause  which  interferes  with 
men  coming  to  themselves  is  a  moral  one.  Sin  has 
given  a  bias  to  our  natures. 

What  is  sin?  Many  definitions  have  been  given. 
Sin  is  privation  or  negation,  one  says.  Sin  is  an  in- 
firmity due  to  a  fleshly  nature,  says  another.  Sin  is 
a  step  in  man's  development,  says  another,  and  so  on. 
But  one  of  the  best  definitions  of  sin  is  that  it  is  a 
power  in  reversed  action.  It  is  as  when  you  stick  a 
splinter  in  your  flesh  and  all  the  nerve  power  and 
vitality  in  the  blood,  instead  of  working  for  your 
health,  now  works  for  disease  and  inflammation  and 
pain.  The  vital  power  of  your  body  working  against 
you.  It  is  nature  in  reverse  action.  Or  we  may  say, 
sin  is  a  failure  to  come  to  one's  self,  and  to  discover 


202  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

the  agreement  between  the  make  of  the  soul  and  the 
make  of  the  universe,  that  the  colours  of  the  inner 
rainbow  of  man's  nature  and  the  colours  of  the  inner 
rainbow  of  God's  nature  are  the  same. 

"Judas  went  and  hanged  himself"  is  the  brief  record 
of  the  end  of  the  betrayer  of  Christ.  It  was  the 
most  logical  act  a  man  could  perform  on  the  Judas 
theory  of  life,  that  he  could  ignore  the  make  of  his 
soul.  Suicide  is  supreme  folly,  yet  it  is  the  logical 
result  of  supreme  folly  which  preceded.  Sin  hurls 
a  man  full  tilt,  not  like  Don  Quixote,  against  a  wind- 
mill, but  against  the  stars  in  their  courses.  No  man 
can  safely  fight  the  stars.  The  suicide  ignores  the 
make  of  the  universe.  He  takes  the  wrong  path  to 
come  to  himself  and  fails.  He  is  crushed  by  a  power 
he  cannot  resist. 

Buddhism  as  a  religion  is  simply  a  gradual  method 
of  committing  soul  suicide.  It  has  its  distinct  theory 
of  the  make  of  the  soul,  how  it  is  built.  All  misery 
comes  from  desire,  says  Buddhism,  from  love  of  wife, 
child,  father,  mother,  of  wealth,  fame,  power,  from 
the  love  of  life.  The  eyes  are  burning  with  desire, 
the  mouth  is  burning,  the  nose  is  burning,  the  ears 
are  burning,  the  whole  body  and  soul  are  burning 
with  unsatisfied  desire.  These  desires  never  can  be 
satisfied,  says  Buddha.  Therefore,  extirpate  desire; 
root  up  love.  Destroy  hunger  and  aspiration.  Quench 
the  flame  of  desire.  Nirvana,  oblivion,  self  destruc- 
tion is  man's  only  hope. 

Now  the  prodigal  up  to  the  moment  he  came  to  him- 
self had  just  this  experience,  but  instead  of  going  on 
the  Buddhist  way  to  suicide,  he  took  Christ's  way  to 
the  Father  and  found  himself.  He  did  not  extinguish, 
but  changed  the  direction  of  desire.     He  discovered 


HE  CAME  TO  HIMSELF  203 

the  secret  of  the  world.  He  found  the  Father  await- 
ing him  with  ring  and  robe  and  feast.  He  came  to 
himself,  to  his  own,  to  the  riches  of  the  Son  of  an 
eternal  Father. 

Man's  power  to  respond  to  God  is  his  most  distin- 
guishing mark.  Certain  sea  animals,  like  the  porpoise, 
rise  to  the  surface  now  and  then  and  it  may  be  gaze 
upward  when  the  stars  are  shining  brightly,  at  the 
firmament.  But  astronomers  they  can  never  become, 
because  they  have  no  imagination  or  mathematical 
faculty.  Man,  on  the  contrary,  coming  up  out  of  the 
sea  of  his  self-indulgent  life,  beholds  the  glories  of 
God's  spiritual  heaven  and  of  his  Fatherhood  and  has 
power  given  him  to  respond  to  the  revelation.  His 
soul  leaps  up  to  the  infinite  because  it  is  made  in  the 
image  of  the  infinite. 

Before  closing,  I  must  indicate  briefly  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  great  teacher,  leader,  and  Saviour,  en- 
abling men  to  come  to  themselves.  To  follow  him  is 
to  find  the  Father.  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any 
time,  the  only  begotten  son  hath  declared  him."  "He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  father."  "Take  my 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me."  The  bow  of  Christ's 
yoke  is  easy  to  wear;  it  is  a  seven-coloured  rainbow 
of  hope  made  of  the  qualities  and  attributes  of  God 
Himself,  God's  love,  God's  power,  God's  wisdom, 
God's  truth.  Those  colours  appear  in  the  beatitudes, 
Christ's  recipe  for  blessedness.  Blessed  are  they  that 
mourn ;  merciful ;  hunger  and  thirst  for  righteousness ; 
peacemakers,  etc. 

"But,"  says  someone,  "will  not  the  universe  right 
itself  of  itself  and  get  rid  of  all  sin,  and  thus  In  right- 
ing itself,  will  it  not  right  us  too?  Will  not  the  warp 
and  twist  In  the  universe  come  out  through  the  lapse 


204  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  time?"  Perhaps  so  in  physical  nature.  But  the 
warp  and  twist  of  our  wills  will  not  come  out  unless 
we  by  God's  grace  untwist  them,  Man's  nature  was 
made  free.  Freedom  is  one  of  the  colours  of  the 
rainbow  answering  to  God's  freedom.  This  freedom 
warns  us  that  we  may  permanently  choose  to  remain 
out  of  adjustment  to  God  and  the  universe.  Our 
light  may  go  out.  Sin  may  send  us  down  to  eternal 
despair.  Astronomy  teaches  that,  while  some  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  are  flaming  suns,  others  are  cinders 
whose  light  went  out  ages  ago.  A  human  life  may 
become  a  flaming  sun  or  it  may  become  a  cinder.  Its 
own  free  choice  will  determine.  Man  must  repent. 
He  must  arise  and  return  to  God  if  he  would  know 
the  meaning  of  life  and  destiny. 


XX 

MANHOOD  AND  CHILDHOOD  RELIGIONS 

Hebrews  4:  16 — "Let  us  draw  near  with  boldness 
unto  the  throne  of  grace." 

THIS  text  contains  one  of  the  most  distinctive 
teachings  of  Christianity  and  touches  the  heart 
of  rehgion.  It  asserts  man's  direct  relation- 
ship to  God.  I  invite  attention  to  three  phases  of  this 
truth. 

I.  The  severity  of  the  ordeal  which  it  imposes  upon 
man.  That  ordeal  is  the  direct  vision  of  God.  Notice 
here  the  contrast  with  the  accepted  and  current  modes 
of  dealing  with  God.  When  the  words  were  spoken 
the  religions  of  the  day  practised  the  indirect  method 
of  approaching  God. 

The  heathen  nations  could  not  conceive  a  religion 
without  a  human  priest,  a  holy  man  who  could  stand 
between  the  flaming  splendour  of  the  divine  being 
and  the  trembling  soul.  Here  is  no  recognition  of  any 
priest  save  Jesus — the  great,  invisible,  ascended  and 
glorified  high  priest,  who  was  thus  lifted  up  to  the 
level  of  the  divine,  and  invested  with  something  of 
the  awfulness  of  Jehovah  Himself.  Even  among  the 
Jews  the  shekinah  glory  of  Jehovah  was  concealed 
behind  the  veil  of  the  temple  above  the  mercy  seat, 
whither  no  one  might  intrude  save  the  high  priest  once 

205 


206  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

a  year;  yet  the  awful  responsibility  of  the  high  priest 
is  here  put  upon  the  humblest  believer,  who  is  told 
to  enter  into  the  most  holy  place. 

The  Jew  cherished  such  a  reverence  for  the  divine 
name  that  he  substituted  another  word  for  the  name 
of  God  lest  he  be  guilty  of  blasphemy  in  uttering 
that  name,  and  yet  we  are  here  urged,  not  to  take  the 
name  of  God  upon  lips  indeed,  but  to  enter  into  the 
flaming  splendours  of  the  divine  presence  itself. 

Occasionally  in  the  prophets  we  find  an  ideal  de- 
scription of  God  as  an  everlasting  fire,  as  a  consuming 
flame.  "Who  shall  dwell  in  the  everlasting  burnings ; 
who  shall  abide  in  the  eternal  fire  ?"  Isaiah  asks,  mean- 
ing thereby,  not  hell,  but  the  divine  nature  itself.  Then 
the  answer  comes  from  him :  It  is  only  the  ideal  holy 
man  who  can  endure  that  fire;  "He  that  lifteth  not 
up  his  hands  to  vanity,  that  walketh  uprightly,"  a  man 
of  the  highest  moral  worth.  Yet  in  this  New  Testa- 
ment revelation  we  find  the  writer  assuming  that  every 
believer  may  do  this  thing.  Each  of  us  is  told  to 
walk  in  the  burning  fiery  furnace  of  the  divine 
presence. 

It  was  a  most  natural  gravitation  of  human  nature 
back  to  priesthood  and  sacraments  in  the  early  cen- 
turies of  Christianity.  Men  felt  that  human  hands 
polluted  by  sin  and  frail  as  the  brittle  clay  of  which 
they  were  made  could  not  endure  to  go  directly  into 
the  divine  presence  and  receive  from  the  hands  of 
the  eternal  Himself  the  gift  of  grace.  Hence  they 
turned  the  simple  ordinances  of  Christianity  into  sac- 
raments, and  said  grace  comes  through  the  waters 
of  baptism  and  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  supper. 
The  ladder  of  spiritual  worship  rose  to  dizzy  heights 
and  its  rounds  were  rounds  of  fire,  and  the  timid  spirit 


MANHOOD,  CHILDHOOD  RELIGIONS    207 

of  man  shrank  back,  baffled  and  terrified  at  the  task 
of  dimbing  it. 

II.  Notice  in  the  second  place  the  perfection  of  the 
medium  of  access  to  God.  We  may  understand  this 
shrinking  of  the  human  soul  from  God ;  it  is  the  sense 
of  sin  and  guilt  that  causes  it.  But  the  New  Testament 
has  forever  removed  that  barrier.  The  preceding 
verses  tell  of  our  high  priest  who  is  touched  with  a 
feeling  of  our  infirmities,  who  intercedes  for  us. 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Epistle  of  John  which 
shows  the  writer's  insight  into  the  human  heart.  "If 
we  walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in  the  light  we  have 
fellowship  one  with  another,"  John  says.  Yes,  we 
say,  but  who  shall  walk  in  that  light?  Think  of  it, 
the  ineffable  light  and  glory  of  the  divine  nature.  In 
those  white  rays  every  sin  shines  out,  even  the  least. 
The  least  shortcoming  or  evil  becomes  a  burden  of 
guilt  grievous  to  be  borne.  But,  anticipating  this 
shrinking  of  the  soul,  John  adds,  "And  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  his  son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  Ah, 
that  is  the  secret  of  our  approach.  While  we  walk 
in  the  ineffable  light,  the- blood  of  Christ  whitens  us 
to  correspond  to  it.  So  that,  in  spite  of  man's  sense 
of  unworthiness,  he  is  invited  to  aproach  God,  to  come 
boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace. 

III.  Observe  in  the  third  place,  then,  not  only  the 
severity  of  the  ordeal,  and  the  efficacy  of  the  medium 
of  approach,  but  also  the  glory  of  the  privilege  and 
duty.  It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  It  calls  for 
direct  approach  of  man  to  God.  This  religion  of  the 
direct  approach  to  God  assumes  the  possibility  of  fel- 
lowship between  man  and  God,  that  we  are  made  in 
God's  Image.  Any  religion  which  shall  do  the  best 
things  for  man  must  have  in  it  the  elements  of  the 


208  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

infinite,  because  there  is  an  infinite  element  in  us. 
It  must  have  in  it  also  the  element  of  the  finite, 
because  we  live  amid  finite  things.  We  must  bring 
the  infinite  down  into  the  finite  and  lift  the  finite 
up  into  the  infinite.  The  true  religion  grants  the 
greatest  boon  and  imposes  the  highest  responsibility 
— freedom.  It  sets  the  greatest  task  and  constrains 
to  the  greatest  calling — world  conquest.  It  points  to 
the  loftiest  heights  and  supplies  the  loftiest  inspiration 
— God. 

There  are  three  tests  to  any  religion.  First,  it  must 
not  keep  a  man  a  minor;  second,  it  must  not  repress 
any  element  of  his  nature ;  third,  it  must  not  limit  the 
development  of  his  unfolding  nature  in  any  direction. 
In  other  words,  it  must  first  make  him  a  man ;  second, 
it  must  give  symmetry  to  his  manhood;  third,  it  must 
allow  full  play  for  all  his  powers. 

You  may  divide  all  religions  into  two  kinds:  those 
which  keep  us  minors  and  those  which  make  us  men — 
manhood  religions  and  childhood  religions. 

The  one  great  manhood  religion  has  all  the  great 
elements  in  it. 

You  may  have  a  religion  without  mystery,  but  that 
would  imply  that  you  have  no  power  of  insight  into 
the  meaning  of  things.  Only  a  childhood  astronomy 
is  content  with  the  view  that  the  stars  are  "lightning 
bugs." 

You  may  have  a  religion  without  danger,  but  that 
implies  that  you  have  no  courage.  It  assumes  that 
you  are  a  coward.  All  men  may  not  be  brave,  but 
nobody  would  like  to  be  painted  grovelling  at  his 
enemy's  feet. 

You  may  have  a  religion  without  the  necessity  for 
endurance,  but  that  implies  that  your  muscles   are 


MANHOOD,  CHILDHOOD  RELIGIONS    209 

flabby,  or  that  you  are  an  invalid,  and  that  there  is 
no  element  of  the  heroic  in  us. 

You  may  have  a  religion  of  sight,  which  can  pene- 
trate no  deeper  than  external  forms,  but  that  implies 
that  you  have  no  capacity  for  inner  vision,  no  power 
to  gaze  upon  the  unseen;  and  all  of  us  revolt  at  the 
imputation  that  when  a  man  and  a  horse  stand  side 
by  side  on  a  landscape  the  man  can  see  no  deeper 
into  its  meaning  than  the  horse. 

When  the  Scripture  says :  "Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor 
ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man 
the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  him,"  it  clearly  means  that  God's  way  of  making 
Himself  known  to  us  is  spiritual.  The  senses  do  not 
reveal  God  to  us.  The  eyesight  may  assist  the  spirit, 
indeed,  but  there  must  be  more  than  eyesight.  I  may 
gaze  upon  the  soft  radiance  and  all  the  wonder  of 
the  stars  on  a  clear  summer  night,  and  thus  I  may  be 
lifted  into  spiritual  fellowship  with  God,  so  that  my 
spirit  beholds  what  the  physical  eye  never  saw.  But 
I  should  remember  that  astronomers  have  been  known 
whose  calling  required  them  to  live  amid  the  glories 
of  that  stellar  world  and  who  were  yet  never  believers 
in  God. 

So  also  the  grandest  music  may  do  it,  but  then 
again  it  may  not.  "Ear  hath  not  heard  it."  Wondrous 
as  is  the  passion  of  the  great  singer,  the  rolling  notes 
of  the  organ,  and  the  thrilling  power  of  the  orchestra, 
this  thing  of  which  I  speak  is  higher — "Ear  hath  not 
heard  it."  "Heard  melodies  are  sweet,  but  those  un- 
heard are  sweeter." 

Or  you  may  divide  religions  into  voice  religions  and 
echo  religions.  There  are  echo  religions  and  hearsay 
religions  in  plenty  in  the  world,  but  what  men  want 


210  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

and  need  is  a  voice  religion — a  living  voice  speaking 
to  the  soul.  One  comes  to  you  with  a  creed  and 
says,  "This  is  what  God  said  to  men  once,  and  you 
are  to  believe  it  because  God  said  it.  A  human  pen 
wrote  it,  but  It  is  true,"  I  say.  Yes,  this  all  may  be 
true,  and  I  might  subscribe  to  what  you  say  God 
said,  but  after  all,  this  would  be  but  an  echo  of  God's 
voice.  The  objection  to  a  creed  is  not  that  it  Is  untrue 
necessarily,  but  that  it  is  an  echo.  I  want  to  hear 
the  voice  itself.  Or  the  priest  may  bring  you  the 
sacrament  and  say,  "This  bread  and  wine  which  you 
see  is  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  It  will  give 
you  life."  Again  I  say,  This  is  an  echo.  The  Scrip- 
tures declare  that  eye  hath  not  seen  the  vision  of  God. 
When  I  come  to  the  Scriptures,  I  recognize  the  voice. 
The  others  only  echo;  this  sets  my  heart-strings  all 
athrill.  When  I  come  to  God  in  prayer,  I  find  the 
same  result :  the  throne  of  grace  becomes  real,  and  its 
power  enters  my  life. 

The  chief  objection  to  the  Mohammedan  rule  of  so 
many  prayers  a  day  as  the  complete  discharge  of 
religious  duty  is  that  it  belittles  man.  It  goes  on  the 
view  that  our  spirits  can  be  easily  satisfied,  that  there 
are  no  abysses  of  desire  and  yearning,  no  hunger  and 
thirst  for  the  eternal,  no  great  deeps  in  our  nature 
which  rise  beyond  the  earthly.  A  religion  of  forms 
and  ceremonies  and  observances  and  nothing  else  can 
never  prepare  a  man  for  the  great  crises  of  life. 
Mohammedanism  fails  to  see  man's  lofty  contempt  for 
the  husks  and  his  passionate  yearning  for  reality.  It 
understands  not  man's  eternal  dissatisfaction  in  reli- 
gion with  the  trivial  and  superficial. 

There  are  great  temptations  which  come  upon  us 
when  every  temporal  thing  fails  us.    Every  one  of  us 


MANHOOD,  CHILDHOOD  RELIGIONS    211 

has  his  wilderness  experience,  when  the  tempter  is 
there  trying  to  lead  him  astray,  attacking  us  at  our 
weakest  point  and  when  helpers  are  far  away,  and 
urging  us  with  great  plausibility  to  use  our  powers 
for  low  ends,  tempting  us  to  transfer  stones  into  bread 
to  satisfy  our  hunger.  In  such  an  hour  every  one  of 
us  koows  that  it  is  eternal  truth  that  man  shall  not 
live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth 
out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  It  is  in  such  an  hour  that  we 
want,  above  all  things,  the  privilege  of  direct  approach 
to  the  eternal. 

There  are  moments — yea,  days  and  weeks  and 
sometimes  years  of  suffering  and  sorrow  when  our 
losses  or  our  pains  stun  us  and  paralyze  us.  At  such 
times  men  may  reason  with  us,  but  the  voice  of  reason 
grates  on  the  spirit  like  a  clanging  discord  and  but 
deepens  our  gloom.  The  voice  of  the  human  com- 
forter, even,  loses  its  power,  and  priestly  words  sound 
like  a  mockery.  In  such  an  hour  our  supreme  need 
is  contact  with  the  eternal.  The  power  which  made 
the  universe  is  the  only  power  which  can  sustain,  and 
the  wisdom  which  holds  all  human  affairs  in  the  hol- 
low of  its  hand  is  the  only  wisdom  which  can  then 
be  trusted.  The  throne  of  grace  is  then  our  last  resort. 
We  listen  and  yearn  for  the  clear  notes  of  the  voice 
of  God  saying,  'T  love  thee,  I  love  thee;  pass  under 
the  rod." 

There  is  yet  another  kind  of  experience  which  shows 
tis  this  need.  George  Eliot  remarks  that  she  is  sorry 
for  the  man  or  woman  whose  life  has  in  It  no  lofty 
heights  from  which  one  may  have  a  sense  of  falling, 
no  pinnacles  of  experience  and  Insight,  of  joy  and 
peace,  to  which  we  may  look  back  for  Inspiration. 

There  come  times  in  our  lives  when  we  see  life 


212  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

as  a  whole  and  grasp  its  meaning ;  moments  when  we 
realize  how  sinful  sin  really  is,  how  descipable  selfish- 
ness really  is,  how  perishable  earthly  values,  how  vain 
are  human  ambitions,  and  how  empty  is  human  pride. 
At  such  times  we  see  the  winsomeness  of  purity  and 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  irresistible  fascination  and 
power  of  love  and  service.  At  such  times  the  heights 
of  moral  attainment  tower  in  snowy  grandeur  above 
us,  losing  themselves  in  the  white  splendours  of  God's 
throne.  And  yet,  although  so  high  and  steep,  they 
seem  infinitely  to  be  desired.  Here  again  we  need, 
above  all  things,  the  sense  of  God's  presence.  We 
need  to  feel  the  pulsing  reality  of  His  love  and  power 
in  our  hearts.  With  that  energy  in  us,  there  comes 
to  us  a  strange  sense  of  power  and  assurance  of  at- 
tainment in  spite  of  our  frailties  and  sins.  At  such 
times  there  is  no  feeling  of  self- righteousness,  no  plum- 
ing of  ourselves  on  our  moral  merit.  Indeed,  there 
is  a  sense  of  ill-desert  and  unworthiness.  But  in  spite 
of  this,  the  spirit  of  the  strong  climber  enters  us,  the 
glow  of  conquest  comes  over  us  and  faith  seizes  the 
victory  by  anticipation.  All  of  this  is  born  of  the 
sense  of  an  infinite  pressure  upon  our  life  from  above 
and  below.  There  is  a  power,  irresistible  but  gracious, 
which  moves  and  sways  us  and  buoys  us  up.  We  are 
as  crested  wavelets  rolling  inward  toward  the  shore 
under  the  impulse  of  the  ocean's  resistless  tide.  We 
are  as  men  buoyed  In  an  infinite  sea  of  atmosphere, 
and  glorified  as  we  float  in  a  boundless  flood  of  sun- 
light. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  supreme  moments  and  the 
great  sorrows  which  reveal  to  us  the  reality  and  give 
direct  contact  with  God.  But,  after  all,  these  but 
make  clear  what  is  true  every  day.     Believe  me,  the 


MANHOOD,  CHILDHOOD  RELIGIONS    213 

hardest  thing  we  have  to  do  is  to  perform  our  daily 
tasks  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  to  keep  our  spirit 
sweet    amid   the   rivalries    and   competitions    of    the 
world,  to  keep  our  patience  steadfast  as  the  nagging 
and  irritating  circumstances  of  life  sting  us  and  as 
the  long-drawn  battle  seems  to  go  against  us ;  to  keep 
our  faith  clear  when  clouds  gather  and  to  keep  love's 
fires  glowing  and  warm  when  envy,  ingratitude  and 
hate  pour  cold  water  on  the  flame,  to  keep  hope  for- 
ever springing  in  our  breast — Ah,  me,  this  is  our  task. 
This  is  the  great  task,  and  we  need  the  play  of  eternal 
forces  upon  our  lives  to  enable  us  to  perform  them. 
I  have  spoken  of  those  types  of  Christianity  which 
shut  men  off  from  God  and  put  priests  and  sacraments 
between  the  soul  and  its  Maker,  and  I  have  said  they 
assume   that  we   are  to   remain   spiritually  children 
always.     But  what  of  the  man  who  himself  ignores 
the  throne  of  grace  and  the  reality  of  the  divine  in 
human  life?     Such  a  life  is  strangely  contradictory. 
Without  the  element  of  prayer  and  faith  a  human  life 
assumes  that  all  the  grand  and  significant  elements  in 
life  are  absent.    It  assumes  that  there  are  no  mysteries 
to  perplex,  that  human  reason  is  equal  to  all  its  prob- 
lems, and  even  philosophy  laughs  at  such  a  view  as 
this.     It  assumes  that  there  are  no  great  dangers  to 
be  avoided,  or  at  least  that  no  help  is  needed  in  the 
midst  of  the  blind  and  bewildering  play  of  the  ponder- 
ous machinery  of  life,  and  that  human  hands  can  con- 
trol all  those  forces.    It  assumes  that  there  are  no  great 
temptations  which  man  may  not  overcome  in  his  own 
strength,  that  there  are  no  sorrows  or  losses  that  re- 
quire anything  more  than  ordinary  human  foresight 
and  skill  and  endurance,  that  there  are  no  heights  which 
men  may  not  climb  without  help  from  above.  Such  a  life 


214  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

takes  for  granted  the  incredible  view  that  a  man  can 
find  his  way  safely  across  a  wide-stretching  quagmire, 
which  he  never  crossed  before,  by  picking  his  way  at 
midnight  without  a  lantern ;  that  he  can  climb  the  dan- 
gerous alpine  heights  of  temptation,  with  beetling 
crags  and  yawning  chasms,  without  a  guide,  and  that 
he  can  cross  the  storm- tossed  sea  of  life  in  a  frail 
craft  of  his  own  making,  and  defy  wind  and  wave  and 
tide.  Ah,  me!  who  can  measure  the  audacity  and 
the  temerity  of  the  life  which  has  no  throne  of  grace 
in  it,  no  union  and  fellowship  with  God. 

I  am  glad  it  does  not  say.  Let  us  come  to  the  throne 
of  gold,  for  that  would  mean  only  that  God  is  an  un- 
changeable God,  omnipotent  it  might  be  and  a  dwelling 
place  of  wondrous  values,  the  dwelling  place  of  om- 
nipotence and  unchangeableness,  and  yet  these  very 
qualities  might  shut  him  off  from  helping  men. 

I  am  glad  it  does  not  say,  Let  us  come  to  the  throne 
of  light,  for  that  light  might  be  so  brilliant  that  it 
would  dazzle  and  blind  me.  I  am  glad  it  says,  Let 
us  come  boldly  to  a  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may 
find  mercy  and  obtain  help  for  a  time  of  need.  That 
means  everything  we  can  imagine  that  is  fair  and 
sweet  in  God.  It  makes  of  Him  the  beautiful  and 
tender,  and  forbearing  and  forgiving  and  compassion- 
ate God.  It  means  that  His  exaltation  above  us  does 
not  hinder  His  bending  down  over  us  in  love.  It 
means  that  His  infinite  wisdom  and  power  do  not  keep 
him  sitting  in  cold  isolation  on  the  circle  of  the  heavens, 
but  permits  him  also  to  dwell  in  the  meek  and  lowly 
heart. 


XXI 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  CHRISTIAN 
EXPERIENCE 

John  9 :  25 — "One  thing  I  know,  that  whereas  I  was 
Mind  now  I  see." 

THESE  words  record  the  conversion  of  a  man 
who  had  an  experience  of  Christ's  power. 
It  had  taken  so  deep  a  hold  upon  him  that 
nothing  could  shake  him  from  his  conviction. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  develop  this  text  in  a  direct 
way,  but  rather  to  use  it  as  an  introduction  to  the 
general  subject  of  Christian  experience.  My  purpose 
is  to  show  how  Christian  experience  gives  us  testimony 
to  the  power  of  the  gospel,  which  cannot  be  overcome. 

Human  experience  is  the  one  datum  of  all  phil- 
osophy, and  all  science.  The  experience  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  the  race  is  the  grist  which  is  poured 
into  all  the  scientific  and  philosophic  mills.  Hence, 
Christian  experience  as  a  distinct  form  of  human  ex- 
perience ought  to  receive  more  attention  than  it  has 
ever  received  before. 

Prof.  Bowne  has  emphasized  the  fact  that  whatever 
your  philosophy,  your  experience  is  the  same.  You 
may  call  things  by  any  names  you  will  and  it  will 
not  affect  facts  or  experience.  Christian  Science  says 
that  all  is  mind,  that  a  cobblestone,  for  example,  is 
simply  an  idea  and  not  a  real  piece  of  matter.  We 
will  suppose  that  some  one  hurls  it  and  it  strikes  your 

215 


216  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

head  and  sends  you  off  for  relief.  Then  you  have 
an  experience  in  the  realm  of  the  ideal.  You  have 
an  ideal  stone  striking  an  ideal  head  and  raising  an 
ideal  bump,  and  producing  an  ideal  dizziness  and 
pain,  and  requiring  the  application  of  an  ideal  liniment, 
which  produces  an  ideal  cure  and  affords  you  an  ideal 
satisfaction  and  peace  of  mind.  But  all  this  does 
not  in  the  slightest  degree  alter  the  experience  itself. 
And  if  you  are  going  to  rear  a  philosophic  system  on 
the  principle  derived  from  sudden  contact  of  cobble- 
stones with  human  craniums,  you  will  be  compelled 
to  take  this  concrete  human  experience  to  begin  with. 
Denying  that  a  stone  is  matter  does  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  change  its  effect  upon  your  physical  organism 
when  it  strikes  you. 

Science  and  philosophy  are  beginning  to  recognize 
the  evidential  value  of  Christian  experience,  though 
they  are  very  slow  about  it  and  very  reluctant  about 
it,  even  yet,  apparently  because  it  is  not  as  obvious 
to  the  senses  as  the  facts  of  the  physical  world.  The 
world  has  laughed  long  at  Brother  John  Jasper,  who 
contended  that  the  "sun  do  move"  around  the  earth 
because  he  saw  it  on  one  side  of  his  house  in  the 
morning  and  on  the  other  side  at  night.  But  we  know 
there  is  a  system  and  set  of  motions  in  the  back- 
ground more  comprehensive  and  wonderful  than  the 
rising  and  setting  sun  alone  can  explain.  Now,  to 
refuse  to  accept  the  testimony  of  Christian  experience 
because  it  lies  in  a  realm  behind  sense-experience  is 
to  adopt  the  John  Jasper  attitude  towards  truth. 
Science  and  philosophy  have  both  been  guilty  of  this 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  They  have  been  pursuing 
the  Ptolemaic  system  of  truth  with  Brother  Jasper 
instead  of  the  Copernican  with  modern  astronomy. 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  217 

Nobody  now  doubts  the  existence  of  radium,  and 
yet,  as  one  says,  it  has  been  "bombarding"  the  Uni- 
verse aeons  and  under  the  very  nose  of  science,  and 
yet  it  was  only  discovered  yesterday  and  already 
threatens  to  revolutionize  science.  Religious  experi- 
ence is  the  radium  of  the  spiritual  universe,  which, 
needs  only  discovery  to  revolutionize  any  man's 
thought  as  to  life  and  destiny. 

Now  Christian  experience,  the  experience  of  regen- 
eration and  conversion,  of  moral  transformation 
through  Christian  agencies,  has  evidential  value  in 
several  directions. 

I.  It  is  the  supplemental  link  to  complete  philosophy. 
Philosophy  is  man  reaching  up  towards  God.  Chris- 
tian experience  is  God  reaching  down  to  man.  Phil- 
osophy seems  always  on  the  point  of  discovering  the 
secret  of  the  universe,  but  it  never  succeeds  it  doing 
it.  We  thought  a  while  ago  that  idealism  had  come 
to  the  Kingdom  to  save  us  from  materialistic  science, 
and  it  did  good  service.  But  idealism  has  become  so 
abstract  and  impersonal  that  it  cannot  be  distinguished 
from  Naturalism.  Oh,  yes,  these  two  philosophies  are 
still  debating  and  disputing,  but  their  differences  are 
chiefly  imaginary.  The  dispute  reminds  one  of  the 
reply  of  the  unlearned  American  who  had  travelled 
abroad.  He  was  saying  he  had  visited  the  Matterhorn 
and  the  Jungfrau,  and  Lake  Geneva  and  Lake  Leman. 
"But,"  a  friend  interposed,  "Lake  Geneva  and  Lake 
Leman  are  synonymous."  "O,  I  know  that,  but  Lake 
Geneva  is  a  great  deal  more  synonymous  than  Lake 
Leman,"  he  replied.  Idealism  in  its  abstract  form  is 
perhaps  just  a  little  more  "synonymous"  than  Natural- 
ism, that  is  all. 

Now  why  is  it  that  philosophy  seems  to  expend  so 


218  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

much  labour  for  naught?  To  me  it  is  clear  that  the 
reason  why  it  seems  to  labour  so  long  without  satis- 
factory results  is  that  it  refuses  to  consider  all  human 
experience,  including  the  religious.  It  splits  experi- 
ence up  into  little  bits  and  hunts  among  the  bits  for 
some  single  abstract  principle,  which  will  explain  all 
the  rest.  It  is  very  much  as  if  one  were  going 
to  attempt  to  explain  the  ocean  and  all  its  contents, 
its  variety  and  marvellous  abundance  of  life  and, 
instead  of  searching  its  depths,  should  take  a  single 
fish  and  scale  off  from  the  fish  a  single  scale  and,  on 
that  scale  as  a  foundation,  build  up  his  theory  of  the 
ocean  and  its  contents.  How  accurate  do  you  suppose 
his  account  would  be?  And  yet,  this  is  analogous  to 
what  philosophers  have  done.  Spinoza  scaled  off  from 
the  world  of  experience  and  being  the  idea  of  sub- 
stance and  built  a  pantheistic  system  on  that  scale. 
Hegel  scaled  off  the  conception  of  reason,  or  the  idea, 
and  reared  a  vast  idealistic  system  on  that.  Scho- 
penhauer scaled  off  the  conception  of  will  and  reared 
his  pessimistic  system  of  philosophy  on  that.  Haeckel 
has  scaled  off  the  conception  of  matter  and  builds  his 
materialistic  system  on  that.  Another  takes  motion 
or  energy  or  force,  and  so  on,  I  had  almost  said  ad 
infinitum. 

The  result  of  this  process  is  that  the  philosophers 
get  clear  away  from  human  life  and  experience.  They 
fix  their  gaze  on  the  photograph  of  the  photograph 
of  a  photograph,  a  dim  and  faraway  image  of  reality, 
and  become  absorbed  in  excessive  star-gazing,  meta- 
physical cliff-climbing  and  transcendental  soap  bubble 
blowing.  They  are  like  the  Indian  juggler  who  hung 
his  ladder  on  thin  air  without  its  touching  the  ground 
below,  sprang  upon  it,  climbed  out  of  sight,  pulled 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  219 

the  ladder  after  him,  and  disappeared  in  the 
clouds. 

All  this  ought  not  to  discredit  philosophy,  but  teach 
it  a  lesson.  Men  fail  to  find  the  secrets  of  the  world 
until  God  and  God's  dealings  with  men  are  considered. 
Dr.  Ashmore  tells  us  of  some  men  on  a  raft  floating 
down  the  Mississippi  River  who  stopped  for  supper 
one  night,  and  then  floated  on,  but  returned  after 
awhile  to  the  same  place,  or  a  similar  one.  They  did 
this  several  times  until  they  discovered  that  they  were 
caught  in  an  eddy  of  vast  dimensions  and  were  being 
swept  in  a  circle  repeatedly  back  again  to  the  starting 
point.  So  has  philosophy  moved  in  a  circle  with  way- 
stations  along  the  route,  but  never  able  to  escape  from 
the  circular  movement  of  human  thought.  There  is 
one  way  for  philosophy  to  escape  from  its  situation 
and  find  the  current  on  the  bosom  of  the  river  of 
thought,  which  will  carry  it  on  to  its  destination.  That 
current  is  religious  experience,  wherein  man's  upward 
soaring  thought  is  met  by  God's  descending  revelation 
and  love.  When  this  current  of  thought  is  once 
reached,  a  new  day  will  dawn  for  philosophy  and  ere 
long  the  philosopher  will  see  the  gleam  on  the  gates 
of  pearl  and  the  sparkle  of  the  jasper  walls  of  the 
city  of  God,  whither  they  would  find  the  way. 

Christian  experience  takes  all  the  abstractions  of 
philosophy  and  recombines  them  and  gives  us  the  con- 
ception of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  The  one  sub- 
stance of  Monism  comes  back  as  the  one  person  behind 
the  world.  The  one  idea  of  Hegel  comes  back  as 
the  thought  and  plan  of  eternal  love.  The  one  energy 
of  those  who  glorify  force  and  change  comes  back 
as  the  beneficent  will  of  the  Holy  and  loving  Father. 
The  plan  and  progress  of  nature  and  the  moral  ongoing 


220  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  the  world  comes  back  as  the  infinite  and  eternal 
design  of  the  Holy  and  Loving.  Thus,  when  in  our 
hearts  we  can  say,  and  know  what  we  mean  when  we 
say  it,  the  word  "Abba,"  Father,  we  hold  in  our  hands 
the  clue  to  all  the  philosophies,  which  remain  in  a 
state  of  unstable  equilibrium  until  we  find  this  key. 
All  philosophy  is  thus  summed  up,  as  in  the  words 
of  Dr.  Fairbairn:  "God  is  the  Father,  everlasting  in 
His  love.  Love  was  the  end  for  which  He  made 
the  world,  for  which  He  made  every  human  soul. 
His  glory  is  to  diffuse  happiness,  to  fill  up  the  silent 
places  of  the  universe  with  voices  that  speak  out  of 
glad  hearts.  Because  He  made  man  for  love  He 
cannot  bear  man  to  be  lost.  Rather  than  see  the  loss, 
He  will  suffer  sacrifice.  In  the  place  we  call  hell  love 
as  really  is  as  in  the  place  we  call  heaven,  though  in 
the  one  place  it  is  the  complacency  of  pleasure  in  the 
holy  and  the  happy  which  seems  like  the  brightness 
of  everlasting  sunshine  or  the  glad  music  of  waves 
that  break  in  perennial  laughter,  but  in  the  other  it 
is  the  compassion  or  pity  for  the  bad  and  the  miser- 
able which  seems  like  a  face  shaded  with  everlast- 
ing regret,  or  the  muffled  weeping  of  a  sorrow  too  deep 
to  be  heard.  That  grand  thought  of  a  God  who  is 
eternal  Father,  all  the  more  regal  and  sovereign  that 
He  is  absolutely  Father,  can  never  fail  to  touch  the 
heart  of  the  man  who  understands  it,  be  he  savage  or 
sage."  And  we  may  add,  cannot  fail  to  become  the 
generalization  large  enough  to  include  all  the  data  of 
life  and  history  of  science  and  philosophy. 

H.  In  the  second  place  Christian  experience  sheds 
light  on  all  the  unique  claims  of  Christianity. 

Prof.  James,  you  know,  and  other  scientific  ob- 
servers concede  that  religious  experience  is  a  witness 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  221 

to  the  supernatural;  only  he  refuses  to  admit  that 
Christ  is  the  author  of  it,  and  does  not  concede  the 
other  unique  Christian  claims.  The  attempt  is  to 
find  a  common  denominator,  so  to  speak,  between 
Christianity  and  other  religions  and  show  that  all  are 
essentially  alike  and  that  the  distinctive  Christian  ideas 
are  overbeliefs.  But  these  men  have  not  thought 
through  the  problem  of  Christian  experience,  in  par- 
ticular they  are  shy  of  facing  the  actual  claim  of 
Christ  and  His  relation  to  it  all. 

Christ's  place  in  Christian  experience  is  the  supreme 
matter.     All  other  Christian  claims  go  with  this. 

Now  the  spiritually  regenerated  and  morally  trans- 
formed man  proves  the  deity  of  Christ,  proves  His 
presence  in  religious  experience  for  the  following 
reasons : 

First  of  all,  because  no  man  has  moral  resources 
to  transform  himself.  The  law  of  moral  gravitation  in 
a  man's  life  no  more  reverses  itself  suddenly  than  the 
law  of  physical  gravitation.  When  apples  begin  to  fall 
towards  the  clouds  and  Niagara  Falls  becomes  a 
Niagara  leap  upwards,  then  we  may  look  for  men  to 
be  suddenly  changed  from  murderers  into  saints.  You 
cannot  juggle  the  immoral  elements  of  a  sinner's 
nature  into  the  moral  elements  of  a  saint,  any  more 
than  you  can  combine  the  acid  of  an  unripe  lemon  and 
an  unripe  apple  and  unripe  grape  fruit  and  get  the 
taste  of  caramel.  You  cannot  combine  moral  shadows 
by  any  sort  of  manipulation  and  produce  moral  sun- 
shine. 

The  morally  transformed  life  proves  the  deity  of 
Christ  also,  because  when  the  sinner  turns  to  Christ 
he  gets  the  response.  Christ  invites  him  and  he  re- 
sponds.    He  calls  and  Christ  answers.     He  calls  to 


222  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

Mohammed  and  Mohammed  does  not  come ;  he  calls 
to  Confucius  and  Confucius  does  not  come.  He  calls 
to  Buddha  and  Buddha  does  not  come.  He  calls  to 
Christ  and  Christ  comes.  The  whole  process  is  as 
simple  as  that.  In  his  outward  life  a  new  force  begins 
to  work  a  new  design,  a  new  labour  working  to  an  end. 
But  especially  within  is  there  Another,  one  with  whom 
there  is  fellowship,  to  whom  he  becomes  passionately 
devoted,  whose  presence  is  happiness  and  whose  ab- 
sence is  sorrow,  who  can  sing  with  full  meaning, 
"How  tedious  and  tasteless  the  hours,  when  Jesus  no 
longer  I  see."  Thus,  Christ  acts  upon  the  soul  in 
experience  as  God,  and  manifests  all  the  power  of  God. 

Such  a  life  proves  Christ's  claim  again  because  in- 
tellectual difficulties  die  in  the  light  of  this  experience. 
The  mysteries  are  not  all  solved.  But  the  difficulties 
cease  to  be  relevant.  Miracles  do  not  trouble  him 
now,  because  he  has  a  sample  of  the  miracle  working 
power  in  his  own  soul.  Hume's  argument  that  miracles 
cannot  be  true  because  contrary  to  experience  is  ex- 
actly reversed  and  he  says  miracles  are  true  because 
they  accord  precisely  with  my  experience. 

He  cannot  explain  ultimately  why  the  morning-glory 
opens  under  sunlight  and  closes  under  darkness  any 
more  than  he  could  before.  Nor  can  he  explain  life 
and  spirit.  He  has  what  is  better  than  explanation 
of  life,  life  itself. 

In  particular,  he  has  moral  reinforcement.  This  Is 
the  final  test  of  any  religion.  What  can  it  do  with  a 
bad  man?  None  of  them  can  compete  with  Christ  in 
this  respect.  Look  at  Peter,  and  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and 
Augustine,  and  John  Bunyan,  and  George  Muller,  and 
S.  H.  Hadley,  and  thousands  of  others.  A  sense  of 
moral  power  comes  with  Christian  experience.     The 


CHRISTIAN   EXPERIENCE  223 

moral  heights  Hft  themselves  up  to  the  very  heavens, 
but  they  no  longer  seem  impossible.  The  spirit  of  a 
strong  runner  enters  a  man,  the  spirit  and  sense  of 
conquest.  And  the  moral  transformation  follows. 
There  is  not  a  grace  or  virtue  which  Christ  cannot 
and  has  not  produced  in  human  character,  not  all  at 
the  same  time  or  in  the  same  person,  but  all  have 
been  produced. 

In  this  way  Christ  becomes  final  for  the  man,  final 
for  his  reason,  final  for  his  conscience,  final  for  his 
will,  final  for  his  intellect,  and  most  of  all  final  for  his 
faith,  his  hope,  his  love,  his  aspiration.  Nothing  higher 
can  be  conceived. 

He  now  understands  why  the  creeds  of  Christen- 
dom all  have  Christ  as  their  centre.  He  becomes  a 
judge  and  critic  of  other  religious  systems  than  the 
Christian,  discerning  that  their  unworkableness  is  due 
to  their  lack  of  Christ.  He  understands  the  perennial 
and  remarkable  power  of  the  Scriptures  over  the 
human  heart  as  Christ's  power.  Ten  thousand  other 
witnesses  around  him  and  a  long  line  of  them  run- 
ning back  to  Christ  confirm  him  in  his  experience  and 
thus  create  a  spiritual  community,  the  parts  of  which 
mutually  support  each  other. 

Of  course,  this  experience  is  convincing  to  the  man 
who  has  it  and  should  be  to  the  outside  observer.  To 
the  latter  is  presented  a  new  spiritual  cosmos,  a  great 
system  with  laws  and  forces  analogous  to  the  physical 
cosmos.  There  are  not  here  planets  revolving  around 
the  Sun,  but  there  are  here  redeemed  souls  by  the 
million  revolving  around  a  Saviour.  There  is  not  a 
law  of  physical  gravitation  acting  between  bodies 
directly  as  the  mass  and  inversely  as  the  square  of  the 
distance,  but  there  is  a  Kingdom  of  persons  whose 


224  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

law  of  gravitation  is  love.  There  is  not  a  physical 
law  of  the  transformation  of  energy  pervading  this 
spiritual  cosmos,  but  there  is  the  law  of  the  transfigu- 
ration of  character,  according  to  which  "we  all  with 
unveiled  face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of 
the  Lord  are  transfigured  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  unto  glory." 

Christ  is  the  only  key  to  this  experience.  Mr. 
James,  seeking  to  discredit  a  certain  kind  of  reasoning 
from  design,  says,  if  you  throw  a  handful  of  beans  on 
a  table,  you  can,  by  manipulating  the  beans,  make  any 
sort  of  figure  your  design  may  wish  to  produce,  and 
so  with  arguments  from  design  in  nature,  he  says. 
But  he  fails  to  state  that  the  reverse  is  true.  You 
can  manipulate  the  beans  so  as  to  destroy  a  figure 
or  design  already  present.  Christ  is  the  figure  seen  in 
religious  experience,  in  Christian  history,  in  the  creeds 
of  Christendom,  in  the  Bible.  You  cannot  get  rid 
of  that  figure  save  by  manipulating  the  beans  with  a 
destructive  purpose. 

III.  In  the  third  place.  Christian  experience  trans- 
fers the  whole  problem  of  Christian  evidence  to  the 
sphere  of  practical  life. 

In  this  phase  of  it  Christianity  has  a  point  of  con- 
tact with  the  new  philosophy  of  pragmation.  The 
pragmatic  philosophy  says  the  ultimate  question  for 
every  man  is,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?"  and 
that  the  ultimate  task  of  philosophy  is  not  to  solve 
the  insoluble  riddles  of  the  Universe,  but  to  save  men 
from  pessimism.  Now  Pessimism,  says  the  pragmatlst, 
is  just  one  of  the  two  possible  modes  of  reacting  upon 
or  interpreting  the  total  experience  of  life.  The  opti- 
mist sees  grounds  for  hope;  the  pessimist  does  not. 
The  boy  who  was  asked  while  fishing  how  many  fish 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  225 

he  had  caught  exemplifies  the  optimist.  UnwilHng  to 
confess  failure,  he  replied,  "When  I  catch  the  one  I 
am  after  and  two  more,  I'll  have  three."  As  an  in- 
terpreter of  experience,  he  was  an  adept  and  would 
endure  the  most  searching  tests  of  the  pragmatic  phil- 
osophy; it  was  an  instance  of  a  purpose  to  "create 
reality." 

Now  the  Christian  method  throughout  is  the  prac- 
tical method  of  answering  the  question,  what  must  I 
do  to  be  saved?  Its  answer  is  in  Christian  experi- 
ence. It  says  to  every  man,  "You  can  test  the  reality 
and  power  of  Christ  practically."  It  says  to  every 
man,  you  have  a  "seeing  spot"  in  your  soul  which 
will  recognize  Christ  if  you  submit  to  Him,  just  as 
psychology  tells  us  we  all  have  a  blind  spot  and  that 
if  focussed  right  we  cannot  see  a  black  mark  on  a 
white  card  with  our  eyes  open,  and  the  card  in  front 
of  us.  Christianity  does  not  say,  "Renounce  reason," 
but  only  waive  your  speculative  difficulties  in  the  in- 
terest of  your  moral  welfare. 

The  Gospel  is  practical  in  its  methods.  The  man 
born  blind  did  not  have  to  accept  any  theory  of 
Christ,  God,  or  the  Universe,  neither  Monism,  nor 
idealism,  nor  any  special  form  of  theism.  One  thing 
only  was  required,  said  Christ,  "Let  me  anoint  your 
eyes  with  clay  and  you  go  wash  in  the  pool  of  Siloam." 
This  he  did.  His  faith  worked.  It  grew  by  exercise. 
They  plied  him  with  questions  and  he  said,  "A  man 
named  Jesus  healed  me."  He  rose  from  faith  to  faith 
under  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of  Christ  until  he 
worshipped  Him,  and  this  is  the  experience  of  all  who 
put  their  trust  in  Him.  Of  this  experience  is  born 
the  invincible  conviction:  "One  thing  I  know  that 
whereas  I  was  blind  now  I  see." 


XXII 

THE  GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST* 
John  1 :  14 — "We  beheld  his  glory." 

SOME  years  ago  a  painter  who  admired  the  moral 
beauty  of  Christ's  character,  but  who  refused 
to  acknowledge  that  He  was  divine,  resolved 
to  paint  Christ's  portrait  from  the  evangelical  records. 
For  weeks  he  read  these  simple  Gospels  and  opened 
his  soul  to  every  suggestion  of  beauty  and  moral  im- 
pulse, permitting  himself  to  be  moved  and  swayed  by 
all  the  grandeur  and  radiance  of  that  matchless  life, 
knowing  that  only  thus  could  he  catch  and  reproduce 
on  canvas  the  face  he  would  portray.  But  in  this 
process  of  sympathetic  study  of  Jesus,  his  unbelief 
slowly  passed  away.  First  one  doubt  and  then  another 
was  consumed,  burned  up,  so  to  speak,  In  the  flaming 
splendour  of  that  marvellous  life  and  ere  long  the 
painter  bowed  before  Christ  in  adoration  and  worship. 
Like  a  man  who  has  gazed  into  a  holy  mystery,  he 
came  forth  among  his  friends,  a  look  of  wonder  and 
of  praise  upon  his  face,  and  exclaimed,  "I  beheld  His 
glory." 

Men  are  denying  to-day  that  Christ  is  divine.  They 
are  seeking  to  undermine  that  faith  which  has  healed 
broken  hearts,  and  has  destroyed  the  power  of  sin, 

*  Reprinted   from   Modern   Sermons   by   World  Scholars. 
Copyrighted,  Funk  &  Wagnalls. 

226 


THE   GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    227 

and  comforted  the  dying  for  two  thousand  years. 
It  is  well  that  we  ask  and  answer  the  question,  was 
He  what  He  claimed  to  be,  the  divine  Son  of  God 
and  Saviour  of  the  world?  My  answer  must  needs 
be  brief  and  imperfect;  for  the  subject  is  a  vast  one 
and  many  volumes  have  been  written  upon  it. 

In  evidence  then  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  I  invite 
your  attention  to  the  threefold  glory  of  Jesus  which 
we  have  beheld. 

I.  First,  then,  we  behold  His  glory  in  the  New 
Testament  records. 

If  a  meteoric  stone  should  fall  upon  the  calm  bosom 
of  the  sea,  the  energy  of  its  impact  might  be  measured 
by  the  diameter  of  the  circling  waves  which  it  would 
set  in  motion,  when  those  waves  had  reached  their 
limit.  So  the  claims  of  Jesus  may  be  tested  by  the 
role  He  enacted  while  on  earth,  and  by  the  effects 
which  He  produced.  Let  us  study,  then,  the  circling 
waves  of  His  power  in  a  series  of  relationships  sus- 
tained by  Him. 

Note  first  His  relation  to  sin.  He  was  Himself 
sinless.  His  inner  life  was  a  flawless  mirror  of  stain- 
less purity  reflecting  the  image  of  God.  He  has  chal- 
lenged criticism  for  two  thousand  years  to  discover 
a  flaw  in  His  character.  "Which  of  you  convicteth 
me  of  sin?"  remains  as  He  spoke  it,  the  unanswered 
challenge  of  divine  holiness.  As  has  been  said.  He 
is  the  sun  on  which  all  the  telescopes  of  time  have 
failed  to  find  a  spot. 

He  was  not  only  sinless.  He  forgave  sin  in  others. 
Well  did  His  enemies  accuse  Him  of  blasphemy  when 
He  pronounced  the  words  to  the  paralytic,  "Son,  thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee,"  unless  indeed  and  in  truth  He 
was  God.    For  God  alone  can  forgive  sins. 


228  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

He  transformed  sinners.  As  a  sunbeam  falls  on 
a  mud  puddle  and  draws  up  a  drop  of  water  into  the 
clouds,  distils  it  and  purifies  it  of  all  foulness  and 
sends  it  back  as  a  snowflake,  even  so  could  He  lift  up 
the  stained  life  of  a  Magdalen  and  make  it  white  as 
snow. 

He  shed  His  blood  for  the  remission  of  sins  and 
He  declared  that  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached 
in  His  name  to  the  end  of  time. 

But  sin  is  a  violation  of  law  and  this  relation  of 
sin  raises  another  question,  that  of  His  relation  to 
law.  And  so  we  find  Him  claiming  to  be  lawgiver. 
"He  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine  and  doeth 
them,"  "Ye  have  heard  it  said,  but  I  say  unto  you," 
are  forms  of  speech  familiar  on  His  lips. 

But  law  suggests  a  Kingdom  and  a  sceptre  and  a 
throne.  So  we  find  that  He  is  King  of  a  new  Kingdom 
among  men.  He  claims  that  His  Kingdom  shall  en- 
dure forever  and  He  shall  reign  in  righteousness. 

But  a  Kingdom  set  up  on  earth  implies  control  of 
Providential  events.  For  how  shall  such  a  Kingdom 
survive  through  the  ages  unless  the  ruler  can  control 
the  course  of  history  ?  Read  the  24tli  and  25th  chap- 
ters of  Matthew  and  see  how  calmly  He  anticipates 
the  course  of  history,  of  earthquakes,  and  wars  and 
famines  and  pestilences.  Yet  He  says  he  that  en- 
dureth  to  the  end  shall  be  saved,  and  that  He  Him- 
self shall  come  again  at  the  consummation. 

Providence,  again,  is  but  part  of  a  vaster  system 
of  Nature.  And  we  find  that  He  is  Lord  of  Nature. 
He  spoke  to  the  water  and  it  blushed  into  wine;  He 
spoke  to  the  barren  fig-tree  and  it  withered  from  the 
roots  upward;  He  spoke  to  the  loaves  and  fishes  and 
they  were  multiplied  and  fed  the  thousands ;  He  spoke 


THE  GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    229 

to  the  tempest  and  it  was  hushed  into  silence.  Nature 
was  His  servant.     He  was  its  Master. 

Towards  man  He  asserts  the  subHmest  claims.  He 
is  the  object  of  human  faith;  for  Him  all  human  ties 
must  be  severed,  if  need  be;  for  Him  death  is  to  be 
welcomed.  He  extends  His  arms  and  invites  the  race 
to  come  to  Him  for  peace;  "Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give  you 
rest." 

How  sublime  is  this  role  enacted  by  the  Nazarene ! 
And  to  crown  it  all  He  claims  equality  with  God. 
"Before  Abraham  was,  I  am,"  "I  and  my  Father  are 
one."  Well  has  it  been  said,  either  Jesus  was  God, 
or  a  bad  man.    For  He  claimed  to  be  God. 

And  how  simple  the  picture  in  the  Gospels,  how  con- 
sistent; how  transparent  and  clear  the  story!  His 
words  about  God  are  like  the  spontaneous  warblings 
of  some  strange  and  wonderful  bird.  His  deeds  of 
power.  His  miracles  of  grace,  are  as  sparks  emitted 
by  some  great  fire.  Yet  how  unaffected  He  is  in  it  all. 
There  is  never  any  attempt  at  dramatic  effect.  In  the 
moments  of  His  greatest  majesty  He  is  as  quiet  and 
as  unassuming  as  the  shining  of  a  soft,  beaming  star. 
Homer's  gods  are  represented  as  shaking  the  heavens 
by  their  least  act.  The  poet  produces  his  effects  by 
physical  disturbances  when  his  gods  stir.  Jove  gives 
an  affirmative  answer  to  a  petitioner  and  this  is 
Homer's  description  of  it: 

"He  spoke  and  awful  bends  his  sable  brows. 
Shakes  his  ambrosial  curls  and  gives  the  nod. 
The  stamp  of  fate  and  sanction  of  a  god 
High  heaven  with  trembling  the  dread  signal  took 
And  all  Olympus  to  the  centre  shook." 


230  THE  LIFE  IN   CHRIST 

Contrast  this  with  the  quiet  majesty  and  moral 
grandeur  of  Jesus  stilHng  the  tempest  as  He  rises 
from  His  slumber  and  says  to  the  rolling  billows  and 
raging  winds,  "Peace,  be  still."  Sometimes  He  unites 
in  a  single  act  the  perfectly  human  and  the  perfectly 
divine  in  His  nature.  Humility  nestles  up  by  the  side 
of  majesty.  Grandeur  is  adorned  by  lowliness  and 
extremes  meet  in  perfect  harmony.  He  is  worn  out 
with  toil  and  asleep  on  the  boat,  like  any  other;  and 
in  an  instant  stills  a  tempest.  He  stands  weeping 
at  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  like  any  other  broken-hearted 
friend,  and  at  once  hurls  the  voice  of  command  into 
the  tomb  and  raises  the  dead  to  life.  He  allows  Him- 
self to  be  led  away  captive  by  His  foes,  but  restores 
the  severed  ear  of  the  High  Priest's  servant,  and  says 
to  the  impetuous  disciple,  "Knowest  thou  not  that  I 
could  call  to  my  side  twelve  legions  of  angels?"  He 
allows  Himself  to  be  nailed  to  the  cross  and  to  be 
laid  away  in  the  tomb,  and  then  in  undaunted  might 
quietly  opens  His  eyes  and  lays  aside  the  grave  clothes, 
rises  from  the  dead  and  ascends  to  the  Father. 

Surely  we  have  beheld  His  glory  in  these  pages, 
and  any  man  will  repeat  the  painter's  experience  who 
allows  Christ's  image  as  there  portrayed,  to  have  room 
in  his  mind  and  heart.  I  have  read  the  tragedies  of 
Shakespeare,  and  awe  and  horror  have  fallen  upon 
my  spirit  at  their  close ;  I  have  gazed  upon  the  Sistine 
Madonna,  that  masterpiece  of  the  artistic  genius  of 
Raphael,  and  a  sense  of  beauty  has  mastered  me;  I 
have  been  swung  on  shipboard  by  the  mighty  rhythmic 
force  of  the  ocean,  and  a  sense  of  its  power  has  filled 
me ;  I  have  gazed  on  a  clear  night  at  the  dazzling  splen- 
dour of  the  Milky  Way,  and  adoration  and  humility 
have  combined  to  sway  my  soul  with  emotion;  I  have 


THE  GLORY  OF  JESUS   CHRIST    231 

stood  on  the  Corner  Grat  and,  surrounded  by  cloud- 
piercing  sentinels  of  snow-clad  Alpine  peaks  keeping 
guard  like  tall  archangels  over  diminutive  man  below, 
and  wonder  and  awe  have  oppressed  me.  But  the 
image  of  Jesus  Christ  as  it  towers  in  solitary  grandeur 
before  me  in  the  New  Testament  surpasses  them  all. 
He  inspires  me  with  greater  awe  than  Shakespeare, 
and  greater  majesty  than  ocean  or  Alps.  He  is  more 
splendid  than  the  Milky  Way,  and  not  afar  from  me 
as  it  is,  but  near  me.  And  if  a  human  writer  in- 
vented his  picture  as  recorded  in  Matthew,  then  a 
Calilean  peasant  wears  the  literary  crown  of  the  ages, 
and  the  genius  of  Raphael  and  Michelangelo  pale 
into  insignificance  by  the  side  of  His.  Nay,  as  Rous- 
seau says,  it  would  take  a  Jesus  to  forge  a  Jesus. 
We  beheld  His  glory!    We  beheld  His  glory! 

II.  We  beheld  His  glory  in  History.  The  marvel 
of  the  ages  is  the  rock  of  ages.  The  supremacy  of 
Christ  as  compared  with  other  teachers  in  all  our 
civilization  of  the  West  is  as  the  supremacy  of  the 
giant  oak  in  the  midst  of  a  forest  of  saplings,  or  as 
the  supremacy  of  the  sun  as  compared  with  the  planets 
in  our  solar  system. 

Dr.  Fairbairn  says  men  have  attempted  in  recent 
years  to  get  rid  of  Christ  in  two  ways.  One  is  by 
critical  analysis.  They  have  taken  the  knife  of  criti- 
cism and  with  it  have  cut  and  slashed  at  the  Gospel 
records  until  one  of  them  has  said  that  there  are  but 
six  or  seven  authentic  sayings  of  Jesus  in  the  entire 
New  Testament.  The  other  way  is  by  logical  analysis. 
They  have  tried  to  show  that  the  decisions  of  the 
early  Christian  councils  declaring  Jesus  to  be  God  are 
unreasonable  and  absurd.  But  when  they  have  com- 
pleted tbeir  destructive  work,  and  done  their  worst, 


232  THE  LIFE  E^  CHRIST 

there  stands  Christ  towering  above  the  troubled  sea 
of  human  speculation  and  doubt  like  a  great  and  lofty 
rock  at  whose  solid  base  the  angry  waves  foam  out 
their  rage  and  dash  themselves  in  vain.  There  stands 
Jesus  in  the  firmament  of  human  hope,  like  a  star  of 
the  first  magnitude,  above  the  multitudes  of  hungering 
and  sorrowing  and  sinning  humanity,  growing  larger 
and  brighter  and  more  splendid  with  each  generation, 
until  to-day  all  over  the  earth  the  nations  are  in  com- 
motion as  they  gaze  upward  and  point  with  the  trem- 
bling finger  of  yearning  and  hope  to  Him  as  the  lode- 
star of  their  lives. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  His  achievements  in  history. 
See  Him  as  He  moves  westward,  in  the  person  of 
the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  He  kindles  a  flame  of 
faith  in  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean.  He  plants 
His  banner  at  Antioch.  He  sweeps  through  Lystria 
and  Derbe,  and  Asia  Minor  begins  to  prostrate  herself 
before  Him.  He  plants  His  foot  in  Ephesus  and  Diana 
begins  to  totter  from  her  throne.  Restless  He  crosses 
the  Hellespont  and  at  Philippi,  amid  the  quakings  of 
the  earth,  He  wins  trophies.  In  Athens,  amid  classic 
surroundings  of  Acropolis  and  Parthenon  and  chiselled 
beauties  of  Phidias  and  the  glories  of  Praxiteles,  His 
voice  is  heard  calling  men  to  repentance.  At  length 
in  Rome  itself  He  grapples  with  the  world  power.  His 
crown  flashes  in  moral  beauty  by  the  side  of  the 
Caesars,  His  throne  rises,  mystic,  silent  and  invisible, 
but  mighty  in  its  movements  as  the  silent  stars  in  the 
bending  heavens.  When  the  empire  is  broken  up  and 
barbarians  come  in  hosts  sweeping  like  a  conflagration 
over  that  ancient  empire,  He  lays  His  hand  on  their 
untamed  spirits.  Clovis  is  converted.  The  Goths  are 
evangelized.     The  Franks  and  Gauls  and  Scandina- 


THE   GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    233 

vians  come  bending  to  Him ;  England  owns  His  sway ; 
America,  through  Cavalier  and  Puritan  and  Pilgrim, 
is  founded,  and  when  the  feet  of  these  men  touch  our 
shores  the  "sounding  isles  of  the  dim  woods  rang  with 
the  anthems  of  the  free,"  and  in  praise  of  the 
Nazarene. 

A  humble  prophet  of  Nazareth  has  done  all  this. 
He  has  done  it  by  the  use  of  a  single  principle,  indeed 
by  means  of  one  despised  virtue,  self-denial.  The 
cross  is  the  Keystone  in  the  arch  of  His  power.  It 
is  a  true  saying  that  as  chemistry  is  organized  around 
the  principle  of  affinity;  as  political  economy  is  based 
on  the  single  idea  of  value;  as  astronomy  owes  its 
origin  and  progress  to  the  one  law  of  gravitation, 
so  Christ  founded  His  religion  on  the  one  idea  em- 
bodied in  the  cross,  dying  to  live. 

See,  then,  how  He  dominates  the  world,  not  indeed 
perfectly  yet,  but  with  increasing  power.  Look  at  the 
great  creeds  of  Christendom,  the  Lutheran,  the  Cal- 
vinistic,  the  Westminster,  the  Philadelphia,  and  New 
Hampshire  Confessions  of  Faith.  He  is  the  centre 
of  them  all.  If  you  should  go  through  the  forest  with 
an  axe  and  cut  a  ring  around  the  great  trees,  all  of 
them  would  die.  To  take  Christ's  name  from  these 
great  creeds  would  be  to  do  the  same  for  them.  They 
would  wither,  their  leaves  lose  their  life  and  colour, 
their  sap  cease  to  flow.    They  would  perish. 

The  church  is  His  monument.  She  has  had  a  long 
and  checkered  career,  sometimes  persecuted  and  driven 
into  the  wilderness ;  sometimes  unworthy  of  her  high 
calling,  but  even  to-day  she  is  the  fairest  among  ten 
thousand  institutions,  and  the  chief  glory  of  this 
earth. 

The  Lord's  Supper,  beautiful,  impressive  memorial 


234  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

of  His  death,  so  simple  that  any  child  can  understand 
it,  yet  so  profound  in  its  suggestions  of  divine  love 
that  no  philosopher  has  ever  fathomed  its  mystery  to 
its  depths — monument  of  quenchless  love  and  gentle 
solicitude  on  His  part,  and  expressive  of  tender  Love 
on  the  part  of  the  disciples,  it  stretches  back  through 
eighteen  centuries  to  Calvary,  filled  with  the  aroma  of 
His  presence  at  every  step  of  the  way  and  shining 
to  the  eye  of  faith  through  the  ages,  like  a  chain  of 
roses  bedewed  with  tears  of  saints,  and  woven  by  the 
hands  of  angels. 

He  dominates  the  greatest  art  of  the  world.  Go 
yonder  to  the  Art  galleries  of  Europe.  Gaze  upon 
those  yards  upon  yards  and  furlongs  upon  furlongs, 
and  miles  upon  miles  of  flaming  canvas,  the  very  crown 
and  blossom  of  human  genius,  and  what  do  you  see? 
His  figure.  His  mother's  figure,  His  brethren's  figures. 
His  disciples.  His  enemies.  They  portray  Him  as  a 
babe  in  Bethlehem,  with  the  light  bursting  from  His 
infant  form ;  as  a  boy  in  the  temple ;  as  teacher,  as 
cleanser  of  temple ;  as  healer ;  being  raised  on  the 
cross  ;  being  crucified ;  descending ;  ascending  to  glory  ; 
judging  the  world.  As  I  stand  there  gazing,  I  interro- 
gate those  great  Masters,  and  from  their  graves  I  seem 
to  hear  the  answer  from  Murillo  and  Rubens  and 
Raphael  and  the  rest,  "It  was  He,"  they  say,  "who 
touched  my  brush  with  celestial  fire ;  His  hands 
mingled  the  colours,  and  His  spirit  inspired  mine  to 
its  great  achievements." 

So,  too,  as  I  listen  to  the  great  Masters  of  music, 
to  Handel  and  Haydn  and  Beethoven,  as  the  billows 
of  harmony  roll  in  upon  me  and  catch  me  up  and 
sweep  me  on,  as  the  sublime  strains  of  the  "Messiah" 
take  my  spirit  captive  and  chain  me  to  the  flaming 


THE  GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    235 

chariot  of  triumphant  melody,  I  seem  to  hear  the 
Master  of  composition  say:  "It  was  His  breath 
through  my  soul  which  first  fanned  the  flame  of  har- 
mony ;  His  hands  fiirst  smote  the  chords  of  my  being 
until  they  thrilled  with  the  very  echoes  of  heaven." 

What  shall  I  say  more?  He  is  in  our  modern  life 
everywhere;  in  our  political  economy  seeking  justice 
in  all  industrial  conditions ;  in  our  politics,  seeking 
to  purge  it  of  greed  and  graft;  in  our  social  life;  in 
our  literature,  shedding  a  moral  radiance  over  it;  in 
modern  missions.  He  is  not  yet  conqueror,  but  He 
presides  over  the  struggle. 

"Careless  seems  the  great  avenger, 
History's  pages  but  record 
One  death  grapple  in  the  darkness 
'Twixt  false  systems  and  the  Word. 

"Truth  forever  on  the  scafifold, 
Wrong  forever  on  the  throne, 
But  that  scaffold  sways  the  future, 
And  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  Christ  within  the  shadow 
Keeping  watch  above  His  own." 

in.  In  the  third  place  we  have  beheld  His  glory 
in  the  realm  of  Christian  Experience. 

His  glory  shines  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  rises  to  a  new  brilliancy  as  He  marches 
triumphantly  through  history.  But  for  the  individual 
believer  that  glory  attains  to  its  noon-day  splendour 
in  the  experience  of  his  own  heart. 

Christianity  adopts  the  scientific  method  of  demon- 
stration, viz. :  the  method  of  experiment.     Christian 


236  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

experience  means  Christian  experiment.  Make  a  trial 
of  Christ,  and  He  will  prove  to  you  that  He  is  real, 
a  living  Christ  doing  a  divine  w^ork  in  the  soul. 

We  have  all  seen  the  triumph  of  Christ  in  debased 
lives,  men  and  women  plucked  as  brands  from  the 
burning.  They  tell  us,  you  know,  that  a  diamond  and 
a  piece  of  charcoal  are  essentially  the  same  thing,  or 
at  least  that  diamonds  were  made  of  charcoal,  that  in 
her  own  mysterious  workshop.  Nature  accomplishes 
this  wonder.  That  is  interesting,  but  it  would  be  far 
more  interesting  if  my  scientific  friend  could  tell  me 
how  /  can  transform  charcoals  into  diamonds.  Now 
this  is  the  glory  of  Christ.  He  does  just  that.  Jerry 
McAuley  was  a  charcoal  and  Christ  changed  him  into 
a  diamond.  S.  H.  Hadley,  the  bum,  the  drunkard  and 
reprobate,  was  a  black  piece  of  charcoal,  and  so  was 
George  Muller  of  England,  who  began  life  as  a  burglar. 
Christ  touched  their  lives  and  made  them  spiritual 
jewels  fit  to  adorn  His  own  crown  of  glory. 

Now  Christ  predicted  that  He  would  do  just  that. 
He  said  that  men  would  believe  on  Him ;  that  prayer 
in  His  name  would  open  the  gates  of  Paradise;  that 
a  cup  of  water  given  in  His  name  would  have  eternal 
reward.  What  a  magic  name  it  is  to-day  in  its  power 
to  renew  human  lives!  According  to  the  old  story, 
George  Washington,  while  a  boy,  went  into  his  father's 
garden  one  morning  in  Spring  and  found  to  his  wonder 
and  delight  that  his  name  was  growing  in  a  garden 
bed,  spelled  out  by  the  plants.  His  father,  of  course, 
had  planned  the  surprise  for  George.  But  suppose 
the  father  had  foretold  that  hundreds  of  years  later 
his  name,  Washington,  would  be  spelled  out  by  grow- 
ing plants  in  other  garden  beds,  and  suppose  the 
prophecy  had  come  true,  then  we  would  conclude  that 


THE  GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    237 

he  was  in  league  with  the  Cosmos,  that  he  had  super- 
natural power.  Now  Jesus  has  done  a  more  wondrous 
thing.  He  predicted  that  His  name  would  be  written 
in  human  hearts  to  the  end  of  time,  and  that  that  name 
in  the  garden  of  the  soul  would  keep  it  clean  from 
weeds  and  briars,  and  to-day  tens  of  thousands  of  men 
and  women  are  witnesses  to  His  power. 

Experiment,  I  say,  not  in  the  vainly  curious  fashion, 
but  in  the  high  aim  of  moral  purpose,  is  the  true  test 
of  Christ.  Try  Him  thus,  and  He  will  give  the  proof 
of  His  power.  The  school  children  will  recall  the 
way  the  books  prove  that  we  have  a  blind  spot.  Hold 
a  white  piece  of  cardboard,  with  black  marks  on  it, 
before  the  eyes  and  move  it  up  and  down  and  back 
and  forth  until  it  reaches  a  given  point  and  the  black 
marks  will  vanish.  Try  this  and  prove  it.  Now, 
Christianity  says  turn  the  soul  towards  Christ  in  all 
sincerity  and  suddenly  it  will  appear  that  you  have 
not  a  blind  but  a  seeing  spot.  You  will  behold  His 
glory.  A  young  woman  scientist,  who  was  a  sceptic, 
denied  Christ's  resurrection.  The  pastor  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood told  her  to  give  up  speculation  and  try  ex- 
periment, offer  herself  to  Christ.  She  returned  soon 
with  radiant  face,  exclaiming,  "I  cannot  yet  prove  by 
argument  that  Christ  arose  from  the  dead,  but  I  know 
He  is  alive,  for  He  has  come  to  me  and  manifested 
Himself  to  me."  She  beheld  His  glory  in  the  holy 
place  of  experience. 

Here  then  is  the  ground  of  our  confidence.  First 
we  believe,  because,  as  Professor  James  says,  we  will 
to  believe,  or  because  the  Bible  tells  us  to  believe,  or 
because  some  friend  witnesses  to  us  of  Christ's  power. 
But  at  length  we  believe  because  of  what  He  does  in 
us  and  for  us.     That  is  the  reason  why  destructive 


238  THE  LIFE  IN  CHRIST 

criticism  cannot  fundamentally  shake  our  confidence 
in  the  Bible.  In  it  we  find  reflected  our  own  experi- 
ence. If  I  look  into  a  mirror  which  changes  or  dis- 
torts my  face,  I  know  it  is  an  untrue  mirror;  but  if  it 
gives  me  back  my  image  truly,  I  know  the  mirror  is 
true.  Such  a  mirror  is  the  Bible.  It  reflects  truly 
my  spiritual  image. 

Blind  Bartimaeus  of  Jericho  was  healed  by  Jesus, 
and  Dr.  Dale  has  suggested  that  conceivably  his  faith 
at  first  was  based  on  the  healing  of  the  man  born 
blind  in  Jerusalem,  of  which  he  had  heard.  Imagine 
a  doubter  seeking  to  destroy  his  faith  by  calling  in 
question  the  story  of  the  man  in  Jerusalem  who  was 
healed.  "The  story  looks  suspicious,"  says  the  sceptic. 
"Why  did  Jesus  put  clay  on  the  man's  eyes  and  send 
him  off  to  wash  in  a  pool?  There  must  have  been 
fraud  somewhere."  What  answer  would  Bartimaeus 
have  given  to  such  a  doubter  ?  He  would  have  pointed 
to  his  own  eyes.  He  would  have  declared,  as  the  other 
declared,  "Whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  I  see 
the  fair  forms  of  nature  and  they  all  tell  me  I  am  no 
longer  blind,  the  daisies  that  blossom  at  my  feet — 
they  tell  as  I  gaze  at  their  beauty  that  I  am  no  longer 
blind;  the  white  blossoms  on  the  trees,  the  bloom  on 
the  grapes,  and  the  hues  of  the  pomegranate ;  the  blue 
haze  on  yonder  mountain,  the  fiery  splendour  of  yon- 
der evening  cloud,  and  at  night  those  burning  stars 
above — these  all  are  my  witnesses — the  faces  of  my 
friends  which  I  now  see,  of  my  brothers  and  sisters, 
and  the  dear  face  of  my  mother — these  all  are  my 
witnesses — all  this  beautiful  wondrous  earth  of  God's, 
fashioned  by  His  fingers,  they  proclaim  my  testimony. 
Yes,  yes,  I  believe,  not  because  of  what  Jesus  did  to 
some  one  else,  but  because  of  what  He  has  done  to 


THE   GLORY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST    239 

me,  that  He  is  the  divine  Son  of  God.  I  have  beheld 
His  glory  with  the  eyes  to  which  He  unlocked  the 
gates  of  light,  and  bade  me  enter. 

This,  then,  is  the  witness  of  experience  and  every 
believer  knows  what  it  is  in  some  measure.  I  went 
to  Him  in  my  bondage  and  sin  and  He  broke  off  the 
shackles  and  set  me  free;  I  went  to  Him  in  doubt 
and  perplexity  and  the  light  of  day  fell  on  my  darkened 
path ;  in  the  lonely  night  of  sorrow  when  friends  and 
helpers  failed  me,  He  came  into  my  life  and  bound 
up  my  broken  heart.  In  doubt  and  despair  and  dread 
of  the  future,  He  gives  me  life  and  hope.  We  have 
seen  His  glory,  then,  on  the  pages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment record.  It  has  flashed  before  us  through  eighteen 
centuries  of  history,  as  the  rider  on  the  white  horse 
went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer.  That  glory 
has  also  shone  within  us,  and  we  see  it  in  the  lives 
of  others.  We  have  seen  it  as  it  breaks  forth  in  the 
faces  of  the  dying,  who  in  His  name  greet  death  with 
a  triumphant  shout,  and  we  seem  to  catch  it  in  the 
notes  of  the  redeemed  host  above  who  sing  His  praises 
and  who  proclaim  that  they  owe  their  victory  to  Him, 
and  shall  spend  eternity  in  telling  it. 


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